y y / C^/. / /// r'/ /vv/ DUKE UNIVERSITY library p. ■4 A . 1 A* - ' V i' . / \ \ / I 1 i > i V . .. < < I j Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2018 with funding from Duke University Libraries https://archive.org/details/englandsaegisormOOcart I ancLs'J^atLS. /f7nAy//^rHV\mS,iVS 11 y.!uui\'Chuirhlom . ENGLAND’S iEGIS: U OR, THE MILITARY ENERGIES THE CONSTITUTION. BY JOHN CARTWRIGHT, ESQ. There were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men that drew the sword; and the men of Judah were Jive hundred thousand. Samcel. THE THIRD EDITION. N.B. The First Edition made one Part of An Appeal. Civil and Aft- litary, on the Subject of the English Constitution. VOL 1. EontJon: PUBlIsfl^D BY J. JOHNSON, ST. PAUl’^CHL'RCH-YARD. Printed by C. Mercier and Co. No. 6, Nortbumberliind-COUrt, Strand. 180 (). / DEDICATION ^<3 1 ^ Q \/. / TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE CHARLES JAMES FOX> •NE OF HIS majesty’s PRINCIPAL SECRETARIES OF STATK.' Dear Sir, To whom, in the present conflict for empire and existence, ought to be dedicated THE ENERGIES OF ENGLAND, but tO him who; of all her ,sons, possesses a mind the most energetic? To whom shall be dedicated a proud effort to restore to full vigour and energy the military branch of thr English Constitution, but to him who has the most comprehensive knowledge, and holds the'purest principles, of that Consti¬ tution'? b VI Although a Dedicator, I am no flatterer. I have occasionally differed, and I may again differ, from you in opinion on particular points. But if, when I were to be led to battle, I could have the choice of my Gene¬ ral, it would not be him I should choose with whom I had never disagreed; but him in whom I found combined the greatest ta¬ lents, with the truest devotion to the cause in which I was to contend. When we are now to fight, not only for our fields and fire-sides, but for those laws and liberties which make an Englishman’s field an Eden, and his fire-side an earthly •heaven, we cannot but turn our thoughts to ,one in whom, by a singular felicity, arc united the most popular accomplishments for inspiring union, confidence, affectionate at¬ tachment, and public enthusiasm} and, at the same time, a grasp of intellect for. counteracting the gigantic schemes of the ruler of France} and a robustness of mind, for wielding the power of Britain. Had, Sir, your ruling star gratified your early ambition with long possession of the reins of Government, perhaps no work of Vll real patriotism might ever have been dedi¬ cated to you. When a Government has re¬ ceived a deep taint of impurity, ’tis an in¬ fected habitation from which those who, in the full fire of their passions, have ever made it their abode, do not without a miracle es¬ cape in moral health. What statesman, in our time, has tarried in that habitation, and escaped without infection? Which of them can make the honest boast that he re¬ stored PURITY to the government AND ENERGY TO THE CONSTITUTION ? Alas!—But, no: I will suppress the agi¬ tating emotions arising within me: From the hateful spectacle of freedom betrayed, a con¬ stitution trampled on, and the wicked auda¬ city of unbridled power, I will turn to that school of political adversity, in which I trust you have acquired a mastery over your pas¬ sions, fortified your integrity, matured your judgment, and plumed your genius for bear¬ ing you aloft in the region of a luminous and generous policy which, at the same time that it rtiaintains the prerogative and raises the glory of a Sovereign, consults the rights, the interests, and the feelings of a free people. b 2 Vlll Assist, Sir, in buckling the death-striking AEgis on the dread arm of Britannia; that, so graced, and with her other attributes adorned, she may appear another Goddess of Wisdom; who, as poets sing, invented the distaff, the loom, and the ship; who patron¬ ized industry, and more especially the workers in wool; who bestowed on mankind the peace¬ ful olive; but who was never otherwise at¬ tired than as she sprang, spear in hand, from the brain of Jove, in complete ar¬ mour. ^ 'iljf ^ ^ ^ Such, Sir, was the Dedication of the for¬ mer edition of this work, then addressed to you as A RETIRED STATESMAN. The time is at length come when a call from that re¬ tirement is far more honourable to you, than the proudest triumph of a Napoleon can be to that victor. It is a call, when all other means have failed us, to restore by your wis¬ dom and virtue the constitution of your country, ci^M and military^ as the sole means of repairing the unparalleled mischiefs IX of a pernicious system, a system by which our long-aggrieved country, in aggravation of debts and taxes almost insupportable, of wrongs and insults truly intolerable, has fallen, in the commonwealth of European states, from the high ascendant she was wont to enjoy, while her towering rival has reached the pinnacle of aggrandizement; and a sys¬ tem which has reduced England to the ne¬ cessity of arming all her sons in defence of her own shores, that France may not become her confident invader with armies familiar with the overthrow of kingdoms. When, Sir, in such a state of things, the nation now sees joined with you in council ministers who for a while slighted your pro¬ phetic warnings, it is natural enough that the bosom of a long-abused public should give harbour to doubts, and be agitated with fears. The experienced and the intelligent indeed, did not need your late argument on the necessity of acting with a party, if you hoped‘to do good. They acquiescently ap¬ prove the act, trusting to your wisdom and integrity that good shall be the result. This part of the community know the true condition of their country. Casting a retrospective eye over the whole political region of time lying on this side the year 1760, and having a knowledge of those sor¬ did principles which have since been so pro¬ lific of misgovernment, which produced amongst other mischiefs the fatal American war, and gave birth also to the equally fatal European war in which, except for a short interval, we have now again been for thir¬ teen years engaged, they well know that all our calamities and all our dangers have flowed from a two-fold source of evil——the corruption of the civile and the oblivion of tht military^ branch of the Constitution. And the reformation, the recovery, and the re-union of these branches, they know to be England’s security from every peril, her ex¬ trication from every difficulty. And when the well-informed contemplate that body of statesmen to whom it is now confided to avert the threatened shipwreck of the state, confident are they that such men will not imitate the mock-Atlas who presumptuously thought, in contempt of the Constitution, to carry all things on his XI own shoulders j nor the rest of the Titan crew, who rebelled against every constitu¬ tional principlej but that, too wise and too virtuous to substitute themselves for the Law and the Constitution^ such statesmen will glory in being their faithful ministers to dispense their blessings. It has on several former occasions been the Author’s employment, to exhibit the decay and ruin of our national representation, and to show the reforms necessary for ren¬ dering it once more our civil security. On the present occasion he trusts that in the fol¬ lowing pages will be found a correct delinea¬ tion of the decay and ruin of our original militia called the county power, and the simple means of its restoration, so as to be¬ come once more our military protection. On the acknowledged necessity of parlia¬ mentary reformation innumerable and unan¬ swerable are the authorities j your own. Sir, not one of the least powerful. On the sub¬ ject of the military restoration proposed, we have one authority who is in himself a host. Sir William Jones; but even to his per¬ suasions I fear we should have remained in- Xll sensible, had it not been for the more ener¬ getic admonitions of that great human mo¬ nitor, Napoleon. On the subject of parliamentary reforma¬ tion, the vehement spirit of delusion which maddened so many to oppose it, has, I trust, died with him by whose potent but per¬ verted eloquence that evil spirit was con¬ jured up for our affliction; and I trust will shortly expire also his several military delu¬ sions, with all the unconstitutional and anti- constitutional projects, nearly bordering on the Vkase and the Conscription^ to which they have successively given birth. If, Sir, as already intimated, we see united with you in the present endeavour to save your country those who for a while were es¬ tranged from your counsels, it would be mon¬ strous to imagine that you had abandoned those constitutional sentiments, which were your guides, while in your own and your country’s adversity you were building up that solid and lofty reputation that is the standard around which the patriotism of the country now rallies, instead of giving them credit for at length feeling a' conviction of Xlll your rectitude, and for determining to be influenced in future by your wisdom and public virtue. I have the honour to subscribe myself, with the greatest respect, and the best hopes. Dear Sir, Yours very truly, JOHN CARTWRIGHT. c If 4 ^ d s ^ 'tV t^tr ;oOT^* lir(Jj . •„<. ^ ;.. ii/C( ' ‘••<',U '5v* L • ’- ' * .'V * . __ ' H- ,, Vl t.V>Ho4 ‘if 0•f^^^^,l: rm.'sir?' ■•1 . • . >• .»iSf£ia . —.- ,,, , .X!fl ' »i ;:--J yruoY .iHi^jisi>/TaA6 'Kaoi ■ I < \ .♦^, 4 ; w i h' I'* •• ' - CJ ■ V ■ f / i,vi , • ■'- " ^.■AK f ■m '*'■ '» 'ai( ' .•/‘■I ■ ' v■|''' W c*. - EPISTOLARY ADDRESS TO THE VOLUNTEERS. Generous Countrymen! AFTER so many states and kingdoms, vainly relying on what are called regular armies, numerous and well-disciplined, have successively passed beneath the Gallic yoke, or purchased precarious peace with dishonour, it ivas reserved for England, standing alone, to teach mankind the true science of national defence; and for her gallajit so7is it was also reserved to 7 'ender their country a spectacle, to the prostrate na¬ tions^ of profound admiration, and her Government a subject of their contemplation equally august and affecting. May England become an example to those nations, worthy of her own former fame, and of their imitation ! It is not by the alliance of potentate ivith potentate, it is not by combining together discordant hosts of ar- c % XVI hitrary Goverivnents, great and sinall, that oiir neigh¬ bours of Germany can obtain either safety or inde¬ pendence. Would Germany forbid the fell demon of the South to distw'b her lepose, or the mighty Ma- gog of the frozen North to intermeddle in her con¬ cerns^ let her Princes make allies of their people; let modern Germans, like their ancient sires, like the English also, and the English Americans, scions of the same stock, live under legitimate laws of com¬ mon assent, made by delegates freely chosen; and throughout her mnnerous states, from the Rhine to the Boristhenes, fi'om the Danube to the Dwina, let there be to her earthly thi'ones no other defence than the freeman's sword; nor to the heaverdy throne be raised, in adoration, any other than a freeman's voice ; and then, but not till then, shall Gei'mauy be capable of assw'ed defence. Let groves of nodding pikes, and moving spears of free and spontaneous growth, contribute, with the wav¬ ing rush and quivering reed, to adorn the banks of her frontier rivers; and then, although a thousand bridges shall bestride each stream, .it shall still be a barrier as impassable to hostile Gaul or Musco\ite as fields of air to the wingless quadruped. Without freedom, as, to their grief, the Bata¬ vians can tell you, MILITARY DEFENCE is only the evidence of complete subjugation; and the more tri¬ umphant the success the more hopeless the condition of pie defended. But would we understand how freedom and defence XVI1 are to go hand in hand, and how civil liberty is even to gam strength with the increase of military power, then that CONSTITUTION, which is the table of our duties, the record of our rights, and the depository of our liberties, inust be the object of our study, and the guide of our steps. To the sacred book of the CONSTITUITON, frst composed in the wSaxoii tongue and the Saxon style, belongs an estimable leaf on the subject of military defence and common security, which unfaithful trustees, substituting in its place an interpolation of unsound doctrine, big with ruin, disease, and death, have long withholden from the Englisli eye, although its con¬ tents ought to be imprinted on every English heart. To restore to the sacred book this leaf in its genuine purity, and thereby to illustrate those duties, to vin¬ dicate those rights, and to preserve those liberties zvhich are the ends and objects of the CONSTITU¬ TION, is the design of these pages. Protect then, 0, Pj'otectors of your country, this work! It is the ivork of one who, equally with your¬ selves, ivishes that country to be hapjn/ and illustrious; of persecuted mankind, the refuge; of enslaved man¬ kind, the example; of civilized mankind, the glory. In these pages. Gentlemen, you zvill see that this testimony of my esteem for your patriotism is not to be interpreted into an approbation of the Volunteer System, zvhich owes its existence to very improper motives in former ministers, which lays upon its mem¬ bers a very disproportioned share of a common burden. xviii and which) in a military view, for the purposes of na¬ tional defence, is radically defective; and in case our country were to become the seat of war, must personally ruin a very great part of our brave de¬ fenders. J. C. PREFACE. It will be discovered by the Reader that the second Volume of this work was written during the life-time of Mr. Pitt. As the author had no con¬ cern with that gentleman except as the minister of his country, he saw no reason to make any altera¬ tions in his work, because of his decease. On the present occasion, it is the writer’s endea¬ vour to show that the systems of defence, respec¬ tively proper to a despotic and to a free state, are essentially different; and likewise to prove that, in the very texture of the English Constitution, there will be found, by those who shall seek it, a defensive military system for our country, as a free state, which, for excellence, has no parallel in the counsels of man. If a free state, having long neglected her defensive institutions, shall fall into the error of defending herself, in an arduous struggle for preservation, on the principles which belong to states that are despotic, her government, zvhatever be the event of the contest with a rival nation^ will inevitably become despotic ; or, in other w'ords, that state zvill perish, and the people sink into perfect servitude. XX Why, at this juncture, do the friends of their country endeavour to animate every bosom, and to nerve w’ith vigour every arm, to resist the designs of France; but that its dominion would be a govern¬ ment of despotism, and subjection to such authority complete slavery? But, had we at this moment no better system of defence, than that which is common to all despotic states, the enemy need not bring hither his sword to destroy our constitution, and deprive us of our freedom. At our very door we have seen the contrast be¬ tween the opposite systems of defence. When Holland was .defended, on a right system, against the Duke of Alva, and the arms of Spain, the result was liberly and glory; when recently defended, on a wrong system, against the arms of England, the result was slaveiy and degradation. The very suc¬ cess of that defence riveted her chains. When free institutions have fallen into decay and oblivion, there are but few by whom they are un¬ derstood or regarded; and if the habits of the peo¬ ple are become in any degree unfavourable to their revival, there are not many statesmen who will have sufficient force of mind, or energy of virtue, to set up for reformers of the people’s habits, and the restorers of decayed institutions, however excellent in them¬ selves, or how necessary soever they may be to the salvation of the state. No other system of defence, indeed, as I trust these pages will make manifest, can in any respect compare with that of the English constitution. It XXI absolutely excludes the possibility of our country he\n^ made the seat of war i and, in that particular alone, it is of incalculable value; its purchase is above all price; its merit beyond all competition. It is apprehended that, from a mere delineation in the second chapter of this volume, of the practi¬ cal operation of the system, and how it would prove a security against that dreadful evil, the truth is es¬ tablished beyond a possibility of doubt; and that, in any rational mind, it must follow that the instant we shall be placed in a constitutional attitude of de¬ fence, in the same instant dat French Emperor must abandon every thought of invasion. If this be so, as I most assuredly believe it to be, then it should seem that, so long as the enemy shall continue his invasive preparations, so long will there be unquestionable evidence that our system of defence is materially short of constitutional perfection; and Ministers cannot, in my judgment, have a much better test of the soundness of their own measures; neither can they, as I presume to think, receive better advice, than not to lose a single day in providing against the risk here alluded to. On this reasoning, we must perceive that, as Bonaparte could not, in March 1803, speculate on the vulnerability of our Empire any where but at home, had he then seen us in such a constitutional attitude, we should have had no war ; for, daring as he may be, in risking hazardous enterprises, he has too much penetration to attempt impossibilities. When, therefore, we shall knowhow many millions d XXll per month the war is costing us, we shall exactly know how many millions per month an adherence to the military branch of our Constitution wouid, on this occasion, have saved us. And the inquiry will further lead us into the dis¬ covery, that our Constitution is no less our best shield against invasion, and the best bulwark of our liberty, than it is the best protection of our purses and property. Every successive accumulation of the national debt was the offspring of war. Of all human means for the prevention of war, a cheap preparedness for it, accompanied by a high martial spirit, is the best. But, obvious as it is that peace is the remedy against the evils of debt and taxation; yet, for want of employing the right means of avert¬ ing war, not even Ministers the most pacifically in- inclined have been able to keep war from our gates. From Sir Robert Walpole, down to Mr. Addmgtony instead of experiencing a constitutional prevention of the cause of national debt, that is, armed pre¬ paration ACCORDING to THE CONSTITUTION, the nation had been uniformly fed with the hope of an alleviation of its burdens, by the efficacy of a sinking fund; but notwithstanding the clearness of the calculations upon principal and interest, for proving the practicability of paying off, or keeping down, the debt, the nation had, as uniformly, found the hope delusive ; and that it had been sinking deeper and deeper in thegulph of pecuniary distress; and such, if she w'ill not restore her constitution. XXIU must continue to be the case until she be over¬ whelmed. Nor would such restoration only preserve us from attack at home, but be the most powerful preven¬ tion of war in general ; for, perfectly Secure in our own island, the whole of our regular land force, and almost the whole of our navy, would be applicable to foreign services ; affording such an ample secu¬ rity to our foreign possessions as, to all human ap¬ pearance, should discourage any rival power from attempting to molest them. It is thus, by a con¬ stitutional and virtuous government, rendering every individual particle of our physical strength available for our defence, both at home and abroad, that we might indeed put ourselves in a situation to benefit by a sinking fund, with a rational prospect, under Ministers moderately wise, provided they were honest, of continuing in honourable peace until we should have experienced the extinction of our debt; whereas, a contrary conduct may speedily lead to the extinction of our state, and to a condi¬ tion as abject as that of the modern Romans. But, indeed, without looking any further for a motive to a revival and permanent esablishment of the military energies of our Constitution, than to gigantic France, a country of thrice our population, under a military despotism, incurably hostile, and sure to strike at our existence, if ever for a momeni off our guard ; no Englishman, pretending to fidelity to his country, can knowingly propose to us any system of military security short of the best, <1 2 XXIV especially when that best system is a vital part OF THE Constitution. Aluch has been said on offensive operations being tl.e best defensive system j and there is, indeed, mixed with the danger of the experiment, so much military wisdom in the pruiciple, that we ought to be guarded against the misapplication of it in prac¬ tice. The two principal arguments in favour of invading the enemy, wdio threatens you with inva¬ sion, are these: first, that you are thereby to make a diversion of his forces, and find him ample em¬ ployment at home; and secondly, that it is in the na¬ ture of attack to raise the spirits of your own troops and nation, and has a tendency to depress those of the enemy. But when you set about invading the invader, you ought to be certain that he is so77ie- rehere vulnerable in a degree to give scope to your operations; and you ought to be able to act upon such a scale as to oblige him to employ a very ma¬ terial part of his force in opposing you, or hazard some considerable part of his dominions. And there are other very material considerations to be attended to. Now that all continental alliance is at an end, all ideas of invading the invader must also be at an end. With regard to the effects to be respectively pro¬ duced on the spirits of the opposite parties, by ele¬ vating those of Englundznd depressing those of France ^ if those very effects can be better produced by a defensivesysierOi carrying infallibility on its forehead, then, in that particular case, it is, for many very XXV powerful reasons, to be preferred. You cannot make a better diversion of the enemy’s force than by effectually deterring it from attempting to exe¬ cute its purpose. And how can you more effectu¬ ally elevate the spirits of your people, than by plac¬ ing them in a condition to laugh at the impotence of their enemy.? Restore but the military energies of the English Constitution, and then, from that instant, with¬ out any figure of speech, you make successful inva¬ sion an impossibility; and the enemy, unable to annoy you either abroad or at home, will probably be brought to reasonable terms of peace; for he will scarcely continue a commercial war, when a military war can no longer avail him. But should he still per¬ severe, then will be your time to become yourselves the invaders. Having laid the solid foundations of your own security, your whole regular force might be employed to strike some stroke that should still more than at present deprive him of “ ships, colo¬ nies, and commerce,” and extort from him a peace glorious to our country. But the offensive system, prematurely adopted, or without great ability, might be full of hazard. Although you should find a vulnerable point, it might not be an adviseable experiment. If you could not strike deep, your enemy might not even parry the blow; but at the same instant pour his troops upon your shores. If, before you hazarded the attempt, you should not have fully restor¬ ed the military energies of your Constitution, XXVI your offensive force must be comparatively small, andj experiencing a counter-attack, you might be obliged to recal your troops, and possibly under circumstances of disadvantage. In short, whether you meditate attack or defence, it will be found that you have a neglected system, which it is the first duty of every Englishman, from the throne to the cottage, to restore ; not only because, in a mili- tary view, it is the best systeiri that has yet been the fruit of human invention, but because it is a VITAL PART OF THE EngLISK CONSTITUTION. Besides this idea of offensive operations being the best defensive system, there is another system which is directly its opposite, and yet is in high m.ilitary and' political estimation—I mean the Fabian system. Hence we see the necessity of looking with caution upon systems, and learning to think for ourselves. In consulting history, and the military science, we must learn to distinguish the circumstances under which every particular system is to be preferred to another. The two systems I have here noticed are extremes; and it would be easy to show that, when injudiciously adopted, the danger of either of them may also be extreme. He, whose counsels should reduce England to act upon the Fabian system for more than three days might be the author of incalculable evil. The Fabian maxim even more plainly than its opposite admits a defencelessness of condition j and it turns moreover on the idea of your country not XXVll only becoming the seat of war^ but of a tedious and lingering contest. It is the object of this work to show that unless parliament and the executive government are un¬ faithful to their trust, the nation never can be ex¬ posed to any danger whatever from invasion, and especially never could be exposed to the grievous affliction of becoming the seat of war. ^ ' ' V '•Vx " ^iSYjtiCV -. ■ -n ■4 rrt«^'. ' ’ •-^ '• '■ ‘V -v' .^ : , ■s'/. ^rilViwil^y (1 :,l>^^‘^:.^r^■'3n|t .trrAr« '•■ ■* rt \W . -y^' ° ' ■•|«f?'S’ v-.vv '.J ti.* r: '*^ <•»» ; A* ■>■'-■. v^ Vl ’ • '’LsIL^ ,, ^.v •'i ■-1 ■ ."^r; ;' ' '■^^' e.:-. '■t-.:, v-'-8*.'v ■ ". ;■• :' -•-i s . - 1 .' '*< -^^ ■' . V';;. rl^T,''^' ■ - r.v -Y :'t ■ ■•; ^ ^V<^tr■> ^ , ■ - Stm <' ■■ ..wjt ^ yb '• *4^ .*»>*•, -* i": '."‘l^-ir*’.^)**- ■ • . ■‘Vi^r' 'Kpp ‘ '> ■' ;! . *4 s •V-' ■ ■; /V'Ur^'p , ' . “-V. t ■'.'- '-f'' ' •- ■ '*'''0 ’ ENGLAND’S MGIS; OK THE MILITARY ENERGIES OP THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION. CHAPTER 1. PRELIMINARY. 1 HE present situation of our country has abundantly called forth the voluntary services, not only of those who wield the sword, but, of those also who hold the pen. In nei¬ ther of those capacities Is It the first time the author has been upon duty. For thirty years of his life he bore the styord In the public service; and for as many, has he been in the frequent habit of holding the volunteer pen. Seeing that, so far as he has had the means of observing, in the service he now wishes to perform he has not been anticipated by any other writer, and coneeiving that ser¬ vice to be of the highest importance he strongly feels the obligation of submitting to his country, and particularly to its brave defenders, his well-considered sentiments. It is his object to show what are the true principles of dtferice, by which our Country, in the comprehensive and majectic sense of that yord, is to be preserved. It would, of course, be a very negligent performance of this task, were he not to examine the present teinporanj mea- B suies of defence adopted by ministers, and detailed in the statutes whicli, at their recommendation, and with abund¬ ance of confidence in those statesmen, have been passed; and equally would he be to blame, were he not also to pay due attention to that part of the system which thev, in common with all modern ministers, consider as their per¬ manent reliance, namely, the standing army ; or, should he omit to place in comparison w'ith this mixed system of tempbrary and permanent establishments, that which he con¬ ceives to be the true system of our country. To this end, he must retouch the outline of that plan of defence which, five years ago, he drew up and soon afterwards published, in his ‘ Appeal, Civil and Military, on the Subject of the English Constitution.' In this plan he pretends not to any originality; but merely to report the wisdom of one mightier than himself, in whose steps he treads, and the latchet of whose shoes he merely hopes he is not unworthy to loose. It is the excellence of this plan that it com¬ bines in perfect harmony the rights, the duties, and the liberties of Englishmen; and that, having the simplicity of nature, it has likewise its force; and now, that we are called upon by the presiding minister, to draw the sword in defence of our “ property., our rights, and independence*," it ought to be no sliglit recommendation of this plan to him, that it constitutes an essential, a vital part of the English Constitution; which is not a mere civil * Fee the speech of Mr. ^'Iddingioii on tlie 20th June, 1803. “ I “ have no doubt vhatever that, should circumstances render it necessary, “ the great body of the population of the country would, upon an ap- “ peal from their sovereign, stand forward in defence of their rights and “ Hidt'pendence.’’ Perhaps “ it is happy for the future interests of this “ empire that the occasion now offers, of which we should decisively avail “ ourselves, to show that any projects of attack upon our fmances, (pre- “ pertp) and independence, such as the French government seems to en- “ tertain, must be vain and fctilc.’’—Mr. Addington was minister when the first edition ef this work was published. 3 government, in the ordinary acceptation of the word civil, but a two-fold and admirable system of civil and nuliiary polity, most happily combined; whereby these two cha¬ racters, like the faculties of intellectual ability and bodily force in man, are inseparably interwoven, and constitute a complete state or free government. In the ordinary concerns of life, success is not expected to follow, if we despise common prudence, or reject know¬ ledge. In art and in science false principles are sure to produce disappointment and discredit; and if, in their con¬ tests with France, we have seen mighty and confederated nations fall in succession before her, how infinitely import¬ ant to us is it that, when England, single-handed, has to maintain the struggle, she should conduct her defence on right principles! He that should deviate through error would be entitled to our compassion; but he who should set right principles at nought, by intentional violation, would incur the deepest blame. On the mere volunteer adviser of his country lies a weighty responsibility not to trifle with principles ; how incumbent, then, is it on those, who, bv office or station, are responsible for the plans, on which that country is really called upon to act! It is, therefore, to be hoped that, at a crisis on which hangs every thing valuable to society, even the existence of the state itself, and thereby per¬ haps the w'elfare of a large portion of mankind, that there are none in public trust and nsponsibilitij who could be ca¬ pable of rejecting or evading, that which they knew to be imperatively reejuired at their hands by the constitution of their country. On the subject of defence, it is proposed in this work to set before ministers constitution; trusting in their can¬ dour not to shut their eyes against truth; and relying on their integrity that their own system, wherever it shall ap¬ pear to be necessary, shall receive early ameudmeat. Perhaps it will appear that that part of their system which they make only temporary and occasional, ought to be permanent; and that which they consider as permanent ought only to be temporary and occasional : hut let us enter upon the comparision with impartial and dispassionate minds; for that is the only vvay for arriving at a satisfactory con¬ clusion. In the preamble to the first of the statutes touching a ge¬ neral arming, (43 Geo. III. c. 55.) we find it properly laid down, that his Majesty has vested in him, /a:i\ the neces¬ sary powers for repelling invasion ; but, in the second statute (c. 96.) it is fwproperly said that he has the prevogiUive of requiring, on such occasions, “ the vulitaiy senu'ccs of all his liege subjects.” Prerogative being defined to be “ a discretionary power of acting for the public good, where the positive laws are silent it should seem that the applica¬ tion of the word prerogative in this latter statute, to express the executive power, is by no means correct; because, in re¬ spect of the king’s power to command, on all proper occa¬ sions, the military services of all his people, the positive laws are by no means silent ; but the contrary. What in our law books, speaking locally, is called the posse comitatus, or power of the county, is, when wanted, the king’s power -, and this power in the Savo'ii times, being properly organized and ofFxcered, was the sole militia of the land, and infinitely the best it ever experienced. Notwith¬ standing militias of different descriptions were afterwards, in the reigris of William the xA’orwu/t?, Charles the Second, and George the Second, unhappily introduced, yet that original militia, the posse comitatus, disgracefully as it has been ne¬ glected t» has, in proof of an intrinsic excellence, to this hour maintained its legal existence, and, as it is expressed by Sir * Locke on Gov. 2. ^ I 66.—Black’s Com. I. 252. + Inquiry into the legal Mode of suppressing Iliots, with a Constitu¬ tional Plan of future Defence,'p. 10. 5 Williavi Jones, it includes “ the whole chit state, from the duke to the peasant As law, nothing indeed is better known than that every able-bodied man belongs to this power, and that every such man is bound to obey the king’s proper representative, not only in repelling invasion, but in putting down rebellion or insurrection, or even in suppressing an ordinary tumult; and that the number of the posse f to he called forth on any such occasion, rests in tlte discretion of the sheriff or other magistrate, or in that of the king’s generals. Here there is no prerogative in the case; but a well-ascertained legal poteer, which is a much better thing. Now, such being the duties of a posse cojiiitatiis, it is ne¬ cessarily their duty to be aimed equal to such services; as it is incumbent on the legislatirre also, and the executive go¬ vernment, to look well to the pciformance of that duty, and to enforce it whenever, througii indolence, it is neglected. Wlienever, as it is well known, there is such a failure in the duty of common defence, that any one’s house, or other premises, is pillaged or destroyed, such failure in the eye of tlic law is a crime, and the whole neighbourhood is punish¬ ed, by the levying on them a fine to the full extent of the damage. This principle indeed is so deeply ingrafted into our law, that the county in w'hich a traveller is robbed on tlie highway, between sun and s-un, must make him amends for not having either prevented the robbery, or, by its hue and crij, recovered his property. Here, then, we see the reason, on which rests the duty of common defence: —as every one is to have the benefi!, so every one is to bear the burden- But the hue and cry is for the instant pursuit of robbers. * Inquiry into the IcgnI Mode of suppressing Kiots, with a Constitu¬ tional Plan of future Defence, p. 1 i-. T 11). 23. 6 felons, murderers, and other desperate persons*; and the “ cr\j made for xotapons to keep the peace f is to suppress riots and rebellions, and to resist enemies f, or to oppose “ the sudden coming of strange enemies into the realm,! when there is no time to send arms some hundreds of miles ; much less for the preparative of “ training and exercise.'’ The conclusion is obvious. With such a Constitutiok —for it is not by mere la:o, but by inherent right, and from inherent duty, that, as free men, we are ever to be armed,— with such a Constitution, I say, what must we think of our country, after a ten years w'ar, at the cost of three hun¬ dred millions, in which, as we were told, we were fighting for social order, for religion, and for that Constitu¬ tion itself, being, at the revival of the war in March Iast§, as utterly uprepared Tor repelling invasion as w^as Belgium or Jianover, when their people respectively were too late called upon to rise en masse. There has long been somewhere a mass of blame of great magnitude touching the matter now under consideration ; and it were devoutly to be wished we could see a sincere disposition in the administration of executive government to benefit their country by a substan¬ tial amendment. On the part both of the legislature and the executive go¬ vernment in early times it was the sound and honest policy to preserve alive the energies ot the posse eomitatus, or Saxon militia, and wholesome statutes from time to time were enacted for that purpose; besides which the books abound with reports, in which the duties «5f its members are clearly laid down || ; which statutes and reports, and the * 13 Ed. 2. c. 4. + Jones’s Inquiry, 27. Poph. 121, 122. J Disc, on Estab. National Const. Force, by Lord Liverpool^ 179 '» p. 23. ^1803. II See this part of the law brought into a focus by Sir tf. Jones ia his Inquiry. 7 wliole of the law, except only its fines and pUnisiimenis, it has been the misfoi tune ot later times to see “ disgracefully neglected,” as six and twenty years ago was feelingly la¬ mented by Sir William Jones, but alas ! to little purpose. The arming in ancient times was properly regulated by the pecuniary ability of the party; as we see by the 13th of Kd'o.'ard the First, (called the English Justinian) § 2. c. 6. which commands, “ I'hat every man have in his house “ harness for to keep the peace after the ancient assize: “ that is to say, every man between 15 years of age and “ 60 years shall be assessed, and sworn to armour according “ to the quantity of their lands and goods; that is to wdt, “ from 15 pounds lands, and goods 40 marks, an hauberk, a “ breast-plate of iron, a sword, a knife, and a horse ; and “ from 10 pounds ot lands, and 20 marks goods, an hauberlr, “ a breast-plate of iron, a sword, and a knife; and from 5 “ pounds lands, a doublet, a breast-plate of iron, a sword, “ and a knife ; and from 2 pounds land, and more, unto 5 “ pounds of land, a sword, a bow and arrows, and a knife; “ and he that hath less than 40 shillings yearly, shall be “ sworn to keep gis-arms, knives, and other less weapons ; “ and he that hath less than 23 marks in goods shall have “ swords, knives, and other less weapons; and all other tliat “ may shall have bows and arrows out of the forest, and in “ the forest bows and bolts. And that viezo of armour be “ made every year two times. And in every hundred and “ franchise, two constables shall be chosen to make the “ view of armour. And the constables aforesaid shallpre- “ sent before justices assigned such defaults as they shall “ sec in the country about armour, Stc. And zXxc, justices “ assigned shall present at every parliament unto the king' such dcfiiults as they shall find, and tlic king shall pro- “ vide remedy therein.'’’ Such indeed was the provident care to keep the people armed, and in leadiness for the performance of their duties. that by 35 Hen. Vlil. c. 9. every able man was to have “ a “ bow and arrows ready continually in his house-, every “ servant of \1 years of age was to have a bow and four “ arrows continually for himscll, at his proper costs and “ cl)arges and for eve y “ man-child being of the age of “ seven years and above,’’ the oarent was to keep “ a bow “ ai.d two shafts;” and all were to be regularly “ trained “ and exercised” to tiie use of these arms, whether in w-ar or in peace, under severe penalties. Now if it he not more the duty q{ die taxed houseliolder than of those of lower con¬ dition to keep arms, and to learn the use of them, it certainly is more his interest ; foi, in whose keeping can the property of a nation be so securely placed as in that of its owners? And on whom falls the disgrace and the punishment, when rioters commit spoil and mischief, but on those who are as¬ sessed to the taxes? Nor, indeed, is the law and obligation of arms-bearing merelv just and equitable; for, if we value either our honour or our freedom, it is indispensably neces¬ sary, since it is that condition precisely which distinguishes free men from slaves. A modern writer has well observed that, “ where the government only is armed, there despotism “ is established*;” and certainly nothing can be more self- evident. The words of Aristole, much older than Chris¬ tianity, are likewise striking: “Those,” says he, “ who “ command ths arms in a country are masters of the state, and have it in their power to make what revolutions they “ please t*” Hence, so long as the government of this country keeps up a large standing army, if many times the number of that army shall not in the civil state be in the habit of arms-bearing, the liberties of the country must as In- evitablv perish, as the liberties of every other country, in which the government only was armed, have perished. * Young’s Travels, 650. + Polit. vii. 9. 9 Sir William Jones, considering how arms-bearing, in con¬ sequence of court-policy on one hand, and the indolence of the people on the other hand, had fallen into disuse, is careful to remove, for the benefit of cautious persons, every doubt on that important duty. He first quotes the weightiest legal authorities, and then draws these, amongst other con¬ clusions: “That since the musquet and bayonet are found “ by experience to be the most effectual arms, all persons, “ who constitute the power of a county, are bound to be “ completely skilled in the use of them. “ That since the only safe and certain mode of using them “ with' effect is by acting in a body, it is the duty of the “ whole civil state to know the platoon exercise, and to ‘‘ learn it in companies Aware, however, at the time of his writing, of the pro¬ found ignorance of some, and of the extravagant prejudices of others, he recommends that such companies as shall have “ voluntarily associated for the sole purpose of joining the “ power, when legally summoned, and, with that view, “ have learned the proper use of their weapons, street-firing, “ and the various evolutions necessary in action,” should be “ taught, in the most private and orderly manner, for two or “ three hours early every morning, until competently skilled, “ and not unnecessarily march through streets or high roads, “ nor make any the least military parade, but consider “ themselves entirely as of the civil state f.” It is lamentable to think of our country having been so circumstanced, that a man of profound wisdom and exalted virtue, while expounding the law, should feel the necessity of recommending such circumspection in obeying it that, in so doing, his countrymen should not incur the displeasure of their rulers !— of those riders reho ivere in the perpetual ne¬ glect and violation of their duty, in not enforcing uni¬ versal obedience to the law. * Jones’s Inquiry, It). C t lb. 37. 10 In the year 1 782 , I Iiad the honour to consult Sir JVilliam on the correctness of a “ Declaration of Eights^ without which no Englishman can be a Freeman, nor the English Nation a Free People as well as upon the propriety of notes that were subjoined. To find such a man speak with sa¬ tisfaction on “the similarity of our political sentiments,” and call the declaration “ an excellent paper, which ought to be written on the heart of every Englishman,” I need not say was highly gratifying ; neither need I state with how much com¬ placency one who had the approbation and friendship of a Sir William Jones could smile at illiberalities * he has since experienced on account of tlrose “ political sentiments.” The postscript to that letter, dated May 23, 1802, is in these words: “It is my deliberate (though private) opinion, that “ the people of England will never be a people, in the ma- “ jcstic sense of the word, unless two hundred thousand of “ the civil state be ready, before the Hrst of next November, “ to take the field without rashness or disorder, at twenty- “ four hours notice.” We have seen that the late statutes already referred to, in declaring the general obligation to military service, for pre¬ serving the peace, putting down rebellion, or resisting inva¬ sion, have spoken only the language of the constitution and common law, and, if ministers, for reasons best known to themselves, have thought fit, while the danger of invasion still hangs over us, and while the courts in one part of the united kingdom have been occupied in trying and condemning many persons for rebellion, to suspend the operation of those * The Anti-J.icobin Reviewers are not to compliment themselves by supposius this expression alluded to them; as it was not until six weeks after the first publication of this work the author met with their scurrili¬ ties of Mav, 1803, on his LiUcr to the Electors of Kottingham. He should think meanly of his own labours in the cause of English liberty and honour had he not obtained their cordial hatred, and provoked their vulgar and profligate criticism. 11 statutes, as to the training and exercise of a large majority of the posse comitatus, that is a matter, not for me, but, for them to explain. It is not, however, very consistent with the doctrine laid down in those statutes of the universal obliga¬ tion to come at the king’s call to suppress armed rebels, or to encounter the veteran legions of French invaders, that ministers should do any thing to discourage a great majority of the people from qualifying themselves to perform those duties. This is somewhat different from requiring all men to be “ sxt^orn to armour two times in every year* and from levying penalties on them if not provided with arms and with butts to shoot at; or for neglecting but for a few weeks to “ use themselves in shooting f.” When we contemplate the nature and principles of our government; when w'e see the extremely perilous situation of Ireland, and the necessity to be at liberty, if the war be carried into that country, to send thither every disposeable soldier In Great Britain ; when we consider the hostility and the power of France; when we reflect on the state of our finances, and on the pressure of taxes for supporting the enor¬ mous expense of our military establishment in a standing army, under the two denominations of regulars and of militia ; and when we take into our recollection that the posse comitatus is an actual militia, an essential part of our constitution, the cheapest of all means of defence, and at the same time infinitely the most powerful; w'hen, I say, we allow due weight to all these considerations, I confess that I should have thought much better than I do of the statutes in ques¬ tion, had it been the object of them to have revived the genuine posse comitatus, instead of introducing various no¬ velties of a very different character. As in voyaging across a dangerous sea in a tempestous season, the preservation or the loss of the ship must very gi eatly * See p. 7. f lien. VIII. c. y. depend upon the keeping of a true or a false reckoning, so, in a vindictive conflict between two rival empires for the mastery, the preservation or the loss of the state which is attacked, will probably in a very high degree depend on the defence being conducted on true or on false principles. Hence the importance of knowing what art our true princi¬ ples of defence, and where to find them. Happily in our own case they are easily pointed out; and it is still more happy for us that, making vital parts of that Constitution for which we are to fight, an English Peo¬ ple will be disposed to adopt them with fervour, and to act upon them with enthusiasm; fora Constitution whose military excellencies are fully equal to its civil perfections, must, especially at such a trying crisis as the present, be doubly endeared to the hearts of those who are to live un¬ der it. It must be almost superfluous to observe that those who administer such a Constitution have in their hands the two fountains,—of national unanimity and national en¬ thusiasm. May their fidelity and their wisdom set free those fountains, and present, in the presence of admiring earth and approving heaven, the sublime spectacle of a great nation drawing the sword in defence of its rights, determined to live free, or to die fighting ! Let ministers, however, be jealous of officious partlzans who may attempt to promote a spurious unanimity on false foundations; for all such attempts, being against Defence on Right Principles, may but too probably, in the hour of trial, be fouqd to have produced effects the most pernicious. As, in time of peace, a total absence of the military in support of the civil powers of the Constitution would soon bring it to a dissolution, so, in time of war, if we ignorantly attempt to supersede its civil energies, under a false idea of increasing its military strength, we shall soon make havoc of the whole. 13 For the honour of his country, the author hopes he shall never see an English general lead an English soldier to bat¬ tle, deprived of his reason—of his intellectual ability — by the use of Turkish opium, or French brandy, in order to inflame his courage, and cause a momentary augm.entation of bodily force: and he equally hopes never to see the English government put the English nation in military array under any species of intoxication, that should cause it for one moment to forget its civil rights and its civil duties. No ; give the slave opium, and the soldier of des¬ potism brandy, to intoxicate him for the battle with the fury of a beast ! The free man’s courage is highest when his reason is most clear, when he knows the inestimable value of that for which he fights, and v/hen he enters the conflict conscious of being, in the full sense of the word, a man. Seeing liberty in victoiy, and slavery in defeat, the battle has no terrors j for nothing he dreads but degradation and shame. Such men may be slain, but cannot be conquered. And, as a stimulus to glorious actions, to endurance of privation, to perseverance under all difficulties, how infinitely the god-like enthusiasm of such men surpasses the drunken fury of brutalized wretches who fight in chains for the choice of masters ; or the infatu¬ ation of those, who, by having surrendered their liberty to an unprincipled usurper, have become the mechanical instruments of his ambition ! The author trusts that these views of his subject will fully justify the course he has taken, in unfolding the principles of defence on which we now ought to act. It is not mere War in which we are engaged: it is a conflict with a rival and a despotic statefor our political existence. We are not, therefore, to resort for advice exclusively to the camp; nor to study our defence under those only to whom war is a trade and soldiership a profession : we must not place our sole reliance on martial tactics and discipline, on trenches and manoeuvres, on plans of field operation and displays of generalship. These are but of secondary consideration ; and when we contemplate the nature of our state as above deline¬ ated, we shall find that, for the purposes of defence, we at¬ tach to what is scientific in the art of war far more Import¬ ance than it merits ; and as we have already had cause to cau¬ tion our readers against too readily adopting certain favourite opinions on the subject of defence, so we shall even discover that some of the most celebrated maxims in the science of war are mere fallacies, calculated to mislead us into danger¬ ous and disgraceful error. It is not meant to depreciate the military character, which has shone so illustriously on many a well fought field ; but merely to show that, for national defence on English land, we depend not in the smallest degree upon any other species of military force than that which is inseparably interwoven with civil freedom in the very texture of our Constitu¬ tion ■, which by making every citizen a soldier, has placed our security Infinitely above the trumpery of the modern pa¬ rade, and even above all that is called science in modern war. Would Englishmen, therefore, understand the true priciples of national defence, let them resort not only to the camp but to the Constitution ! CHAPTER II. THE CONSTITUTIONAL ENERGIES FOR REPELLING INVASION. How much, for some years past, we have been warned against innovating upon the Constitution, the reader need not to be reminded. He will find no innovation in the plan of de¬ fence now about to be submitted to him : but it will enable him to fix the stamp of dangerous and rimious innovation upon other systems, which, unhappily for our country, have at different periods found introduction ; and particularly on the new system of defence of his Majesty’s ministers. It is to be kept in mind that our free Saxon militia wholly rests on civil foundations, and that arms-bearing is only a part of the duty of every citizen., who, although occasionally military, is not so in the modern sense of the word, by which we now understand a soldier, hired for his “ sold,” or his pay, and subject to military law ; that is, to the mutiny act, and to articles of war framed by the croxvn alone. In the early periods of our constitution, before its genuine Saxon in¬ stitutions were debased by the Norman alloy, the same elec¬ tions gave at once civil power and military command ; as must needs be the case when it was the object at once to or¬ ganize the whole community for the purposes of regulation and security. How admirable the institution which gives the choice of military commanders to those whose liberties arc the objects of preservation ! and which never creates a mili¬ tary ofEcer of important rank without constituting at the same time, and in the same person, a civil magistrate, ne¬ cessitated to become conversant with the laws of his country, and having no interest but in preserving the Constitution ! 16 Although we admit that, in the constitution of a standing army, election by the soldiers would not be a right principle in the appointment of officers, yet wc must not carry our military ideas into the organization of civil society, even when its martial purposes are under consideration. Nor are the elections here spoken of to be by the soldiers of the posse comilatus after formed into tlieir respective corps, nor without proper qualifications, as will be hereafter seen in its proper place. A standing army and a posse co- imtatus are of totally different natures, and to serve totally different purposes. The former is for foreign services, for which the latter is wholly unfit; and the latter for home defence, for which the former is both uniit and inadequate. A standing army is a body hired for certain purposes BY the posse comitatus—iox the.posse comilatus is “ the whole civil state from the duke to the peasant*.” The constitution of a standing army is, and to make it good for any thing must be, despotic; the constitution of the civil state is, and to preserve it must be, free. The standing army of Charles VII. of France, was the first in Europe. His pretended fears of an invasion from the English in order to recover their lost territories in that king¬ dom, together with the dread his subjects had of such an enemy, prevented them from seeing the danger to public liberty from this measure. It soon brought the military potcer of the feudatory barons into contempt, and their services in the field into disuse f. Similar causes have produced similar effects on the condi¬ tion of the modem representatives of the ancient barons of England: which causes, together with the consequences of the civil policy of Henry VII. have shorn the peerage of much of its ancient honours, and of its dignified estima¬ tion in the eye of the people ; as well as of its influence on Jones’s Inquiry, 1 i. + Robertson’s Cliarics V. vol. i. p. 113. 17 the happiness of the country. The military commands in highest estimation, and which hold precedency in the held, formerly the grand theatre of the noble, are no longer theirs; but in the hands of a profession. A nobleman now, if an insurrection spring up under his nose, or if a privateer land to pillage his estate, has no power of the county, to come at a call and repel the insult, or lestore the public tranquillity. What could be so degrading to nobility, the descendants of ancient barons, as the infamous riots and con¬ flagrations at Bii minghavi, when peers of the realm were seen soothing and flattering, and beseeching the miscreants they ought to have been in a situation of deterring from showing their impious heads ; or to have crushed by the strong hand of military power, the moment they had com¬ menced their mischiefs.'' And can the nobleman and man of family and fortune look back to that day of England’s foul dishonour, when her capital was in flames, and at the mercy of the veriest brutes that ever bore human shape; while lords were skulking from their habitations in affright ? Can they, I say, look back to such events, and not rejoice in helping to restore to full vigour and energy those laws which must at once give into their hands, under an orderly system regularly de¬ pending upon the crown, the whole military force of the king¬ dom, and to their country assured tranquillity and repose, although the storm of war were ravaging and afflicting every other state in Europe ? In the enrolment of a militia, the first step dictated by rea¬ son is to secure, and to enforce, the arming of all without exception, to whom the property of a country belongs, and to whom its tranquillity is most an object of interest. This, in the writer’s plan that has been spoken of, as published a few years ago, was therefore proposed. But in the case of the clergy, of female householders, a few official persons, and those above sixty years of age, the law was to describe some D 18 fit person, such as a relative, a domestic servant, or natural connexion, on whom the obligation should fall, of using the arms'provided by the principal; which, agreeably to ancient law and sound wisdom, should ever be kept in the house oj the ou'iicr. On authority of the calculations of Mr. Pitt, of these householders, I reckoned eight hundred thousand. Upon “ cry made for xceapons to keep the peace,” who are the persons to whom that cry should be directed? who the fittest to be armed and come forth on the instant ? Those to be sure who are most interested in preserving Iranquillity,. —the persons of property, the householders w’ho pay the taxes. But by the General Defence Act of 1803 , c. 96 , the arms of volunteers are ridiculously ordered to be depo- s ted in “ the church or chancel, or’* See. “ under the custo- “ dy and care of the churchwardens, elders, constables, “ schoolmasters, and other parochial officers;” so that in¬ surgents intending mischief first collect on a sudden at the de¬ pot and add twofold force to their naked strength by seizing the arms which ought to be employed against them; and even should they find musquets without locks, still they arm themselves and disarm the civil power !! ! Such is the trash of dependent creatures when they gabble about “ the popu- “ lation of the country standing forward in defence of their “ rights and independence!” Wliat conceptions must these courtiers have of the rights and independence of Englishman, w'ho, after training and exercise to qualify themselves for resisting a French tyrant, are not even to march home to their own houses wdth the honours of war, but are to have their arms taken from them by “ the “ churchw'ardens, constables, and sciroolmasters” of the pa¬ rish ! I certainly cannot express the feelings of others, but the constable who should have offered me such an indignity would have stood in danger of feeling my jsayonet in his bodv 19 Then, in order to give this militia all the strength of its original institution, and in consideration of the inability of those beneath the condition of taxed householders, to bear the expense of fire-arms and accoutrements, it was pro¬ posed to provide arms at the public expense ior four Inin^ (Ired thousand more : thos6 arms being committed to the care of the tax-bearers, to whom of course they belonged, to be kept in the houses highest rated in every parish to the window tax, and, as nearly as might be, only one stand of such arms in a house; being at the same time deposited as near the dwelling of him who was to use them as possi¬ ble. These /b?/;’ hundred thousand may be taken by ballot, from the untaxed part of the community, between the same ages as before, namely, 15 and 60; and such only as are able to bear arms. ‘ But all such persons, some one may say, are members of ‘ the posse comitalus, that is, of the proper inilitia ; all are ‘ liable to the burden of defence, as all partake of the benefit ‘ of protection.’ It is very true: And all may be armed, according to their pecuniary ability ; some with pikes, or spears, or swords, and some with stares, now the or¬ dinary weapon of the constable. As I am not now penning a statute, it is not necessary here to go into all the minutiae of organization; but it may be well to say that the pro¬ posal of keeping the fire-arins, purchased by the holders of property, in their own possession, does not proceed from a desire of disarming; for all those of the ballot, for oc¬ casionally using those arms, ought to have arms of their ow’n also, such as they could conveniently purchase: nor w'ould I even debar such as chose it from arming themselves, at their own “ costs and charges,” with musquets, and keeping them in their own houses. Happy were it for our country had she a hardy peasantry, too high-minded to take the field with borrowed arms ; and, armed as property ought to be, and fortified as it ought to be, by a lavv of arrns and n 2 20 police suited to such a state of things, individuals of evil dispositions would feel a much tighter curb on their licen¬ tiousness, than any thing experienced since the original laws of the posse coviitatus fell into disuse. It was proposed to divide England into eight military dis¬ tricts ; one of which should comprehend a large portion of the central country, rich in population ; and each of the other seven, an extensive tract of coast, with a depth of country in-land, until it there abutted upon the central district; excepting only the S. W. district, which was made to extend from Ahbotsbury to the Land's-end^ and from the Land' s-end again to Bristol- Lines of bisection, from the coast inwards, were to cut each external district into two sub-divisions, of equal magnitude as nearly as might be : But here again the peculiar situation and form of the S. W. district dictated a bisection from Dartmouth to Biddeford i that is, from coast to coast. The bisection of the central district ran from Leicester to Ledbury. But the whole distribution will be seen in the map prefixed to this work. I have noAv, for reasons that will arise, to sug¬ gest, in its proper place, a further distribution of the ma¬ ritime districts into border and interior ; the border to ex¬ tend about fifteen or twenty miles from the coast, “ It is proposed that each of the first seven of these military districts should be wholly answerable, to the utmost of its abi¬ lity, for the defence of its maritime border ; and liable to sustain the charge of this defence by an equal assessment on property throughout its territory ; with the exception of fortifying docks, or for other objects properly national, and for which parliament ought to provide; and with the further exception of having, on occasions of real attack, such a certain reasonable reim¬ bursement of a part of the expense from the central dis¬ trict, (to which every maritime district would be a pro¬ tection) as parliament should direct. Thus the inhabitants of the coast, and of the most inland parts, would be com- 21 •pletely Imked together in one interest and one duty, and the exertion of all would be equally insured. On the same principle of law that we now, in cases of loss by riot or insurrection, recover our damages of the Jluyidrcd, because it was the duly of its inhabitancy to have defended our pro¬ perty, every person who should suffer in his property from invasion of foreign enemies, ought equally to have his remedy at law, against the whole inhabitancy of the mi¬ litary district, or sub-division ; not only as a matter of justice, but of sound policy. “ But as the 5th, or South West military district, would have a double maritime frontier to defend, with compa¬ ratively a small Inland territory and population for the sup¬ ply of military strength ; and as the central district would have no coast of its own, and would be very fruitful in peo¬ ple, it ought at all times of danger to furnish strong per¬ manent succours towards the security of that weaker and more exposed district; especially as places of such import¬ ance as Plymouth and Bristol lie within its limits. “ Nor is this all the military service to be required of the central district ; it being intended as a resource to all the others ; and its military force designed as an army of re¬ serve, for supporting any and every other district that should stand in need of assistance : abutting upon every one of them except the 5th, for whose support provision is already made, its succours would always be at hand, and the intelligence of an enemy’s appearance would be its signal for assembling a competent part of its force in the most convenient quarters, to be held in readiness for a march : but such force ought not to advance until actual necessity required, and the pro¬ per orders, by telegraph or otherwise, should arrive.” Here, in central districts, is a body which probably would not be less than one hundred and sixty thousand strong, that must ever remain as a true army of reserve. The circum¬ stances attending the recent raising of one mercenary force 22 of 40,000 for Great Britain only, called an Army of Rc- sei've, and another of 60,000, called Supplementary Militia, are sufficient evidences that our military system wanted a complete reform. In a future page something will be said on the expense incurred on this occasion. But, in order that neither the industry of the countrv might be too much interrupted*, nor its tranquillity unne¬ cessarily disturbed, it is proposed that each military sub-di¬ vision (being a more considerable tract of country than al¬ most any ancient Grecian state) should, in the first in¬ stance, be answerable for repelling invasion on its own par¬ ticular frontier, if such invasion were not very formidable; nor should the forces of the other part even of the same district march to its assistance without express orders from the commanding officer of that district: much less should the succours from the central district pass their own boun¬ dary, without a like order. If, under such a system as we have proposed, the pos¬ sibility of an hostile descent could be supposed, advantages not yet noticed would result. * As the borders of the maritime districts would always be the first scenes of action, it should be made the duty of all officers, residing within the same, to make themselves tho¬ roughly acquainted wdth the ground; and a general, together w'lth an engineer, should at appointed times act as their in¬ structors. As these officers of militia would necessarily have the post of honour, they would doubtless be ambitious to show themselves worthy of it; studying to view the country with a military eye, and to distinguish all its points * The use of standing armies depopulates in two wavs: it not only deprives industry of so many hands as the armies contain, but it greatly discourages matrimony, and the rearing of families. Besides which, the dissolute manners of a professional soldiery have pernicious effects in society; which it should be an object of every wise statesman as much as possible to prevent. 23 of strength, where an Invading enemy could be bast checked, or most effectually resisted; by means of woods, morasses, rivers, cliffs, the intersection of hedges, ditches, or walls ; or the positions of houses, mills, &c. &c. They would observe where roads could most easily be broken up, and would keep in their minds the situations favouring an am¬ bush : into vvhicli it should seem not difficult to draw an enemy on first entering a country, unless he employed a circumspection that must Impede his progress. Thus every gentleman of sense and reflection would be¬ come in a considerable degree a general and an engineer; he would feel confidence in his own powers, and have the confidence of those who served under him. No such officer could at any time traverse the country, whether on business or pleasure, without naturally amusing himself with its military capabilities. Besides, the borders being thus perfectly known to those charged with their defence, to ex¬ cite their vigilance and inflame their courage, their own properly and dwellings, their wives, parents, children, and kindred, would be the immediate objects of their protection. These are considerations of no small importance; but which are wholly defeated by the present rule, Of always remov¬ ing the militia from its own county. The inhabitants o^' the intei lor part of each sub-divislon, being equally subject to all expense from a protraction of the war with those lying nearer the coast, would be prompt in bringing forward their succours, and ready with their purses for all measures cal¬ culated to keep distress and danger at a distance from them¬ selves. The least they can in reason do is thus to con¬ tribute equally to all expense with the inhabitants of the borders; who, m addition to their pecuniary contribution, must necessarily be the first to experience all the evils ami all the dangers of invasion. But when not only a full contribution towards all ex¬ pense, but towards making good also all damage that might be done by invaders on the borders, should be certain of fall- 24 ing upon the more inland inliabitants of a sub-division, it would give them the feelings, not of mere auxiliaries to those on the borders, but of principals in the whole contest; it would keep them alive to the probabilities of an original attack, and render them impatient to share in the defence. The consciousness of being a member, if I may so ex¬ press it, of a well organized local state, destined to act a distinct part for the good of the whole, would, to a general love of an Englishnan's country, add a powerful and glow¬ ing sentiment of local patriotism, in which every one would feel his own personal utility and Importance, more than while contemplating himself as an individual of a kingdom or empire composed of separate nations. This local state would be the theatre on which each man, in the discharge of his mi¬ litary duties even in times of peace, might hope to establish the reputation of a good citizen, and on which, in case of invasion, his achievements must be performed under the eye bf those with whom he passed his life ; and within a neigh¬ bourhood where his name and character would be univer¬ sally known. How such a system framed with judgment might be made productive of publi'j vn tue, to the benefit and happiness of society, the discerning must perceive. In mo¬ delling such a system it would require but ordinary skill in legislation, to give it a military soul, compatible with all the occupations of civil life, causing martial exercises to be a perpetual source of pleasure and honest pride, and laying the sure foundations of an exact and strict discipline while in the performance of military duties. Such a system, instead of producing “ distant move¬ ments'' such as were spoken of in General Orders at Col¬ chester, on the 30th of December 1803, and mortifying and harassing inarches and counter-marches by reason of an insufficiency of force for every where facing an enemy at¬ tempting to land, would provide for always meeting an enemy on lines of the shortest distance and m spaces of the shortest time, which constitute the perfection of military movements: 25 and the ceconomy of power as well ds of money which it must occasion, must be beyond calculation. When we observe the same regiments for ever shifting their stations from east to west, and north to south, traversing and re-tra¬ versing the three kingdoms in all directions, what waste of money and what waste of power must attend all these move¬ ments ! And when, instead of providing for always meet¬ ing an invading enemy with an adequate force, on lines of the shortest distance and in spaces of the shortest time, we see parliamentary provision under which our volunteers may be marched from Cornxval to Scotland, from Scotland to Kent, and from Kent again to Cumberland, as exigen¬ cies should require ; and when we observe a system which from its own nature is likely to call for such marches, what a contrast we must discover, and how n.uch we must la¬ ment that such advantage should be given an ei;emy threaten¬ ing our country either with destruction, or with desolation J Why Is the ship owner, besides his fair qirota of public expense, to have thrown personally upon him an extra charge for any peculiar equipment of his coasting vessels ? Why, in addition to his proportion of every tax, is the farmer inhabiting the border, to devote to the artillery the horses without which his land cannot be tilled ? Why are the borderers to be at the sole expense of batteries, or lines, or other defences, on the coast, by which the inhabitants of the interior are thereby equally benefited, and far more protected ? It is a case somewhat in point that, in the last war, a few individuals on the Lincolnshire coast, through zeal for the public service, erected beacons, flag-staves, &c. for making signals, and found in the end that their zeal was to be its own reward; for no soul contributed a farthing to the expense, nor was it defrayed by government. He, who has ever read Doctor Franklin's admirable talc of a horseman losing his life by neglecting to replace in time a single nail in the shoe of his horse, will easily comprehend E 26 the fatal consequences that may ensue to the whole king¬ dom, from the want of a right system of union, between those who inhabit the border and those who dwell in the interior, in matters of common expense, and mutual pro¬ tection and support. The whole of this system would receive its life and ener¬ gy from the nobility and gentry of the country, as then being the civil magistrates and military officers by whom it must be carried into execution ; and whose prime interest it would be to watch over the principles of its foundation, to cherish its spirit, and, by a due obedience to the laws enacted for its existence and regulation, carefully to guard against its ne¬ glect and decline. Thus would the noblemen and gentle¬ men of England once more rise from that dangling court dependence and frivolous insignificance, to which a mis¬ taken government has in a great measure reduced them, to situations of real dignity and importance in the state; and, by taking their proper posts, civil and military, in such an organization, they would have every influence in their coun¬ ties, and all that affection and attachment of their neigh¬ bours which are so grateful to men qualified to shine in such a sphere. In respect to engineers and artillery, let the present corps, as seminaries, remain. But a contemplation of the fore¬ going system will show it must put an end to all jealousy on the part ot government; and, consequently, to whatever ob¬ structs a complete defence of the country. In every sub¬ division of England, then, there ought to be at least four particular rallying-points, or military stations ; which should be the depots of its cannon, with all their ammunition and apparatus. At these military stations, while the cavalry and light corps flew to the point of descent, to reconnoitre and to harass the enemy, the grand columns of infantry should first rendezvous, and with their own overwhelmins: numbers advance to put an end to the invasion and the in- 27 vaders: not by attacking in bodies of unwieldy or unneces¬ sary magnitude, but proportioned to that of the enemy; so that every man of the body making an attack might get into close fight; and so that, if the first attack failed, an¬ other with fresli troops might be made; and still, it neces¬ sary, another, and another, until further resistance should be beyond the powers of exhausted human nature to support. But, whenever our superiority should be great, no attack ought to be made without first sending a summons to sur¬ render, in hopes of preventing the effusion of human blood. Cold and unfeeling must be the heart, and clouded the understanding, of that statesman, who does not provide for his country’s defence in its freedom. What an idea do we form of the energies of liberty, when we contemplate Attica ~whose territory was far less extensive than one sub-divi¬ sion of our proposed military districts—resisting the invasion of t\\Q Persian monarch, the powerful descendant of the all- conquering Cfrus/~—Wc see the Persian, to make sure of his prey, pour into this little Grecian state 100,000 chosen men- Ten thousand Athenian citizens arm, and march ; and they are joined by one thousand Platcans. IMcanwhilc the invaders penetrate to within twenty miles of Athens. Jealous of the Athenian fame, and anxious to share with their ally in the glory of defending their common country, or to perish in the attempt, the hardy sons of Lacedamon march two hundred and ten miles in three days*.—Unpa- * According to Dr. Gillies; but it seems (o be quire, have the full benefit of “ the military services of all “ his lie^je subjects nor will I violate that principle. But men are to be clifFerently armed, according to their pecuniary means ; so that those who remain, after our arming in the manner and to the extent above mentioned, may, as I have before intimated, be armed with j)ikes, spears, swords, or even with staves, which are the ordinary weapons of our con¬ stables ; which inferior arms, considering the provision of su¬ perior arms already made, mtk-y be very sufficient for support¬ ing pn all occasions the civil magistrate in keeping the peace ; and may also, in the repelling of hostile invasion, be as much as convenient, to these who should act as pioneers, uary means and resources, arms upon calculation ; whereas the ruler of a free state, not being so limited, nor hav¬ ing any interest hostile to the interest of the public, arms ac¬ cording to the PHYSICAL STRENGTH OF THE STATE. If the country of the despot be in danger of attack, he still arms upon CALUCLATION ; he still arms upon a principle ashostile to his people as to his foreign enemy. He merely calculates how he shall ultimately preserve the country and the dominion to himself. Instead of reading instruction in the book of danger, so that his people may have the blessing of freedom and he the benefit of their physical strength, he still cleaves to despotic power, and its cruel, its infernal policy. As to the devastation that may take place in the fields of his unhappy subjects ; the devouring of their harvests and burning their habitations; the ruin, the famine, the rapes, the butchery, and all the unspeakable miseries of having their country the seat of war, all these, provided they do not defeat his object, of ultimately holding the country to him¬ self, are of little account; nay, he himself will adopt deso¬ lation as a part of his military system, and aid in ruining his subjects that he may continue to rule over them, as well as that he may distress his invading enemy. To call such de¬ testable policy by the sacred name of defence is to pro- phane the heavenly gift of speech. The examples in history wherein subjugation and tyranny have been introduced fi om abroad, under the mask of friend¬ ship and defence, are infinite: and the domestic examples of freedom destroyed by surrendering, in hopes of being de¬ fended, the national sword to the sovereign, are precisely as many in number as the instances of that insane policy. But the defence taught and' provided by the English Constitution is defence indeed. At all times, and in all seasons, it is equally at every point of the coast, and at every man’s door. Restore but the military branch of THAT Constitution to “ full vigour and energy,” and 37 ihen neither French ravagers can make your country t’oe SEAT OF WAR, nof cait fiot or insurrection ever disturb your internal repose, I trust it is now seen that, in the pro¬ posed organization, there is not one man, nor one musquet too much. Our constitutional system gives a cavalry of above 26,000, easily capable of an increase to any necessary amount; and an equal number of a peculiar corps of infantry ; both of which must be formed of noblemen, gentlemen, and persons of the best property; the majority of whom, having sufficient leisure for practice, would early acquire the neces¬ sary skill: also a body of grenadiers of nearly 180,000, and as many light infantry, both in the prime of manhood, and consequently apt by nature to learn their military duty with alacrity, while the country remained in danger. And even of Serjeants and corporals it furnishes 95,000 men; and of superior officers above 76,000 more. The officers, with the serjeants and corporals in an army, says an acute observer, are the ligaments and the nerves of that artificial body;—“ the ligaments of military “ union, and the organs of military sensibility and judg- “ menf^h” This being the case, it will appear that, by be¬ stowing particular attention on the training of these, we lay the foundation for bringing the whole mass into a state of sufficient discipline in a short rime, whenever appearances of danger should call for more than that ordinary attention, which should ever be kept up to the use of arms in times of peace. If you once violate principle, in steps “the fiend dis¬ cretion,” with exclusion in one hand, and monopoly in the other, and liberty is no more. Now, no one, I believe, will maintain that those who are our taxed householders are those who should compose armies for Gibraltar, the East or JFest Indies, or for Canada ; nor can any one show the propriety * Williams’s betters on Political Libcriv, p. 51-. 38 of keeping up at an Immense expense an liired army in England, always equal to the supply of such services. Here then is an unanswerable reason for training to fire-arms a great mass of those who are not householders, so that all foreign services may be promptly supplied by men used to such arms ; and wanting nothing but the hnishing touch of the adjutant to make them capital soldiers. Now the larger the mass of men lit f(pr such services unquestionably the better; and the more easily, promptly, and economically they will be furnished ; besides that, in the eye of every wise statesman, to diffuse as widely as possible the true genuine military spirit is to exalt the national character. For further arguments in favour of this strength, 1 refer my reader to tlxc consideration of the rivalship of France ; of her immense power ; of the folly there would be in our disarming in lime of peace, and, finally, whether the author of these pages be not right in proposing a system by which the most energetic invasion, by that energetic despotism, might be defeated with as much ease, as a well armed city quells a paltry riot in its streets. England once armed as he proposes, were all Europe to crusade it to her holy land, no heart would palpitate with apprehension ; no countenance would be overcast with gloom. There would be no bustle in the cabinet; no crude acts to frame in parliament; no alarm ; no trouble ; no expense ; no hurry-skurry through the country ; no motley medley of military associations to form ; nor costly armies to be encamped here, nor barracked there: but an armed people, with a dignified serenity', enlivened only bv an animation and ardour natural to the occasion, would come forth to smite the daring foe, as a bridegroom cometh out of his chamber, and as a strong man rejoiceth to run a race *. In order. If necessary, to pay still further attention to the * This paragrapii lias not been composed in 1800; but, with Ibe exception of a single «ord, is a literal copy of what Mas written in 1798. V S9 civil ranks of men, than appears already visible on the face of the system, those of the infantiy who were ot the superior orders in society, might have an option, provided they had the bodily qualifications, of serving in the Jiuiik covipanies, (not meaning they should be either grenadiers or light infantry who are intended to compose distinct corps) who, on that ac¬ count, should be entitled to wear some mark of distinction; und these distinctions in favour of rank and property might be rendered particularly subservient to the interests of the service, by requiring the cavaliers, the gentlemen at arms, and the flank-company'men, as well as all officers, in pro¬ portion to their rank, to contiibute more largely than others to the local contingent expenses of the service. It is scarcely necessary to observe that the grenadiers and light infantry ought to be selected, not for being particularly tall or short, but for activity and bodily vigour; there should be in fact no difference but in name, as matter of utility, and the whole should be made capable of acting either in a liody or as riflemen ; and a distinct draught, as a reserve, should be composed of the striplings and the aged. To the latter, of course, would fall all stationary services, and such as partook of the nature of garrison duty ; as well as convoys und escorts, the superintcndance of pioneering, intrenching, breaking up of roads, &c. for it is only In the last res.ort they ought to engage an invading enemy. The next question is how to train so immense a body of troops as 1,200,000; for although we have seen in 7'1/WJce as great a number brought to the highest capacities of ser¬ vice, it will be said, we must not expect the like exertion, without a like necessity * ; and ithnay be thought that, in time of peace, our armed posse would degenerate izito as errant trained bands, or rather unlraiacd bands, as were ever in London the objects of derision. But those, who are apt to * Written originally in 179S. All ideas of ditEcalty must now Irave vanished. 40 underrate’what are called undisciplined soldiers, will do well to recollect the battle o( Jemappe, and the early victories of Pichegru: nor may it be amiss to consult Lord Clarendon^ who, speaking of the battle oiNetcburi/, sa'ys, “ The London “ trained bands, and auxiliary regiments, (of whose inexpe- “ rience of danger, or any kind of service beyond the easy “ practice of their postures in the artillery-garden, men had “ till then too cheap an estimation) behaved themselves to “ wonder ; and were, in truth, the preservation of that army “ that day ; for they stood as a bulwark and ramplre to defend “ the rest, bcc. Sec.” b. 7, p. 347. I should not now go further than principles and outlines, were it not necessary so far to touch on detail as to obviate superficial objections, which might create a prejudice to the true constitutional system of arming ; in which I must request the patience of the instructed reader, while I address a few observations to those of less information. The foundation of the system being the legal obligation of all men, under high penalties, to obey the civil magistrates “ upon cry made for weapons to keep the peace in order forcibly to suppress all riot or insurrection, as well as to join the king’s generals, for repelling invaders; it follows that the possession of arms, and arms adequate to such services, is the DUTY of all who are of ability to purchase them f. The many ancient laws for musters of arms, and for giving skill in the use of them, ought to be judiciously re¬ vived ; the spirit of them to be preserved ; and all those de¬ fects which occasioned their falling into disuse, ought to be judiciously amended, by applying the intention of them to . the arms now in use, and by introducing into those laws a self-enforcing principle. If England have men deserving the name of statesmen, this, notwithstanding the luxury * Popliam, 121, 122. Jones's Legal Mode of suppressing I}‘ols, 27 • + Popham, 2S ; and bhorp's free Mi/itio, 7, lO, 11, 3cg. 41 and the commercial spirit of the age, might doubtless be done. The great and exceilent Sir William Jones, in his work before referred to, (p. 10) had said, “ In this awful interval a “ question occurred to me, which must naturally have pre- “ sented itself to many others: Whether the still-subsisting “ laws and genuine constitution of England had not armed “ the CIVIL STATE with a power supicient, if it had bee^i “ previously understood and prepared, to have suppressed “ ever so formidable a riot without the interveyition of the “ military^ “ If no such power legally‘existed in the state, our system, “ I thought, must be defective in a most essential point; “ since no people can be really and substantially free, whose “ freedom is so precarious, in the true sense of the word, as “ to depend on the protection of the soldiery; and even our “ protectors, who for several days possibly could not, but certainty did not, act at all*, might have been necessarily “ called away, in the most dangerous moment, to defend “ our coasts, and maritime towns: if, on the other hand, “ such a power of self-protection did exist, our laws, I con- “ eluded, must have been disgracefully neglected, and “ OUGHT TO BE RESTORED TO FULL VIGOUR aND “ ENERGY.” Afterwards, in p. 34 , he says, “To what fatal cause must “ we ascribe a neglect so shameful and so dangerous? I an- “ swer boldly, yet I hope witliout arrogance, since I use the “ very words of Blackstone, to the vast acquisition of force “ arising from the riot-act and the annual expedient of a “ STANDING ARMY ; which lias induced a disposition, che- “ rished by the indolence natural to man, and promoted by the “ excessive voluptuousness of the age, to look up solely for 4 ■* He is speaking- of the London riots in “ protection to the executive power and the soldiery; a d!s- “ position "which viiist instantly be shaken off, if any spark “ of virtue remain in our bosoms." Skill in the use of arms should be made an essential and indispensable part of the educatioif of youth. Like swim¬ ming, it is an art best learnt when we are boys, and never leaves us when men. From this single regulation all future difficulty, in having a community of free soldiers, vanishes in a moment : and, when the importance of the duty is duly considered, it ought by the strictest sanctions to be en- foiced. Although it has been suggested that persons in the high¬ est ranks and of most opulence should form tire cavalry, it is hot proposed to have a stable at every school, filled witBi milltatv horses. Let the foot exercise alone be taught at the se.minaries of learning. It will be soon enough for the cavalry exercise, when the students shall have left their tu¬ tors. It is conceived that no exercise can be more healthy, and few exercises so delightful'to the youth of large schools, as military manoeuvres ; which are in fact beautiful practical lectures on mechanics; at the same time that they are manly and animating'in a high degree. The author could undertake to furnish a short essay on military language, which renders the whole science of manoeuvres perfectly simple and intelligible. The best writers on military manoeuvres appear to have fallen into the same sort of mistake that, Mr. Tooke says, Locke fell into, in respect of his celebrated Essay on Human Understanding; by not considering how much it was a treatise on words. ‘‘ ’Tis not laboured explanations of the minutia: of ma¬ noeuvres, but a correct and universal application of words of command, in which lies the true secret of manoeuvres. The accidence alluded to does the whole business: it is per¬ fectly easy to learn; and, if it were once made the rule of the service, there is no manoeuvre, whatever, which a bat- 43 « I'dlion would not perform at the mere xoord of command, although neither the officer who gave the word, nor his manoeuvre, had ever been seen or heard of by tlie battalion before that moment. The next generation being thus prepared, the present age, in consequence of the vast military force—vast when considered as a hired army—now on foot, can be at no loss to get competently instructed ; and, indeed, the most ex¬ tensive application to the military exercise throughout the kingdom happily removes every possible doubt as to the prac¬ ticability of this part of our system. The labour of the work, in fact, is in a great measure alrea'dy accomplished ; so that all we want, for rendering the good effects permanent, is “ to restore to full vigour and energy” our ancient arming laws. Although the poverty of the public finances makes it necessary to get rid of our enormous military expenses as expeditiously as possible, yet the security of the country must at all events be, in the first instance, provided tor; and the disbanding of these forces should proceed gradually, according to the progress made in arraying and training the inhabitants. In this disbanding of the present soldiery, those who had trades and occupations to return to, and were de¬ sirous of their discharge, should be the first released. “ The supplementary branch alone of our proposed na¬ tional force would be able to receive into it, and enrol, the whole of the present army ; and their arms miglit be pur¬ chased as before provided for*. Thus restoring to agricul¬ ture, arts and manufactures, an immense body of men, for productive labour, to sustain and enrich tlie state by their * In the minutes of the council in the reign of Elizabeth, there is this entry—“ That order be taken, that arms may be served at reasonable “ rates at the armourer's office at Plymouth.” Defensive War, 83. I see that government has wisely adopted this nile for supplying such of the armed associations as choose to provide their own arras. And the base condition of returning the arms of other associations, it is to be Jioped, will be changed into a payment in money of the value of them. C 2 44 industry; instead of lying as they now do in an unpro/- ductive state, a grievous burden on the industry of the re¬ maining part of the community. Here it is material to notice certain words which fell front Mr. 1 orke, while Secretary at War, on the 20th of June, 1803. Our military system he thought so defective, it re¬ quired to be “ probed to the bottom,” and completely re¬ formed. “ At the commencement of war,’^ he remarked that “ the state of our military preparation has never at all “ corresponded with the means of exertion which the coun- “ try possessed,” And how should it, if that preparation is to consist of standing forces, unless we had a military peace establishment which no attainable revenue could main¬ tain, and with which no freedom could exist? During the continuance of peace, preparedness for war, with economy in finance^ and security to freedom, can only be had by restoring the military branch of the constitution, and preserving it in full vigour and energy. Out of a mere standing army, no additional force, on the com¬ mencement of war, can of itself shoot forth : such an army can only be augmented by dint of expense. In mere bounty money alone, the Army of Reserve, as an augmentation to the regulars, has, this year taking the average no higher than thirty-five pounds per man, cost Great Britain in the first instance, not less than one million four hundred thousand pounds-, and calling out the sup¬ plementary militia, prior to 1804, of sixty thousand men, at the same time cost t-ioo millions one hundred thousand pounds more. Then comes numerous repetitions of the bounty, in consequence of desertions; followed by the pa¬ rochial maintenance of soldiers’ families, the great increase of wages in husbandry, from the scarcity of hands, and many losses resulting from an actual want of labourers: Thus the entire burden of first raising, and then maintaining Written in 1803= 45 the armies of England, is an impressive call upon her states¬ men, to “ probe to the bottom" her military system. And what expense, in this way., can insure us peace, so long as France shall retain her present strength, and the com¬ mand of the sea-coast from the Danish Sound to the Vene¬ tian Gulph ! Wretched, in every view of it, is a wrong military sys¬ tem. But that system once properly corrected, then all in an instant would be economy, strength, and security. Had it been the first care of Mr. Addington's administration to have seen t'l'elve hundred thousand men armed, as proposed in these pages, where the work is only a second edition of what was published early in 1799, he "would not have needed to have made an humiliating peace, nor woidd he have been driven at all into a new war; and, in such a case, for a French Consul to have imposed upon his subjects the burden of building gun-boats, and to have threatened us with invasion, would have been to have made himself the laughing stock of Europe. Had we even been vulnerable in any distant quarter of the world, and had France pos¬ sessed the means of conveying thither her armies, out of our supplementary militia of four hundred thousand men, our regular forces might at any time have been rapidly aug¬ mented ; for, out of an armed and warlike population, regular armies, at the disposal of the crown, as spontane¬ ously grow as bursts from the wide branching arms of our iiative oak a luxxiriantfoliage. Thus have we, at once, probed our military system to the bottom; and shown the mode of its complete reform. Defective as may be the new statutes, in having a duration only tor the continuance of the war, and likewise in other respects, they will nevertheless have made no inconsiderable advance in the road of military reformation ; and will have put in training such a proportion of the civil state as to facili¬ tate an early completion of that work. As fast as that training. 46 and the formation of distinct corps can be carried into exe¬ cution, the present expensive miiitary establishments may be reduced, even in the time of xvar i for, with a posse co- mitatus, or natural militia^ such as it ought to be, and such as it speedily may be, whenever ministers will energetically set about it, we assuredly could not of necessity need any more regular forces than our foreign services should require; as I trust will hereafter more clearly appear. And how strongly does the magnitude of our debt, the weight of our taxes, and the probable length of tlie present struggle, If not wisely conducted, inculcate such policy ! Lord Liverpool, in 1757, speaking of the pecuniary bur¬ den of standing forces compared wdth that of a militia, sup¬ posing the latter to be in pay only during its days of exer¬ cise, says “ it will surpass it in expense by almost txventy times the sum.” But we now see a militia itself, of nearly an hundred thousand men, made standing foi'ces *, and maintained at the full charge of troops of that description. And so much have the troops of these descriptions been of late courted, by an augmentation of pay and allowances, that the burden is become truly intolerable ; and the very cost of our defence, unless we adopt a wiser system, must be our ruin. And after such an addition to an immense standing army, augmented also by corps of fencibles and other cavalry, raised all over the kingdom by very expensive modes, and upheld by dint of grievous taxes, what is the result of the whole ?—Why, truly, the country is not safe, without an act of parliament for a general arming of the inhabitants!—without calling on every individual man to offer his personal services for public defence !—Is it in the power of ridicule, so completely to expose the fatal error of our policy, as it is exposed by the passing of such an act After paying for one year's defence of our island, very much more than its whole rental, and experiencing the * Written in 179S. 47 viost dangerous inroads on our constitutioit into the bdr-^ gain, vve are come at last to personal service, where we ought to have set out, and by which, regulated according to the constitution, we might have saved at least nineteen parts in twenty of our land expense ! Can the genius of ridicule, I again ask, produce such a satire on the system of “ the three last centuries *? Recollecting our distinction of the self-armed, and the supplementary, the first consisting of 800,000 and the latter of 400,000, we see that the nation may, not only be eased of an immense burden, by speedily disbanding the whole of what is now called its militia, and, for aught that I can see to the contrary, a considerable proportion of its regular force also; but that, in the very act of so doing, it would furnish itself with a supplementary posse comitatus of dis¬ ciplined soldiers, equal in number to the diminution of the mercenaries ; whereby it would not only have the benefit of a vast saving, but it would restore to agriculture and ma¬ nufacture the powers of a greater production. Ministers would no longer, from the poverty of the treasurv, not¬ withstanding the pressure on the people of a war taxation, be under the necessity of rejecting the services, and wound¬ ing the feelings, of volunteer corps In all parts of the king¬ dom. And while the spirit of the people is flowing in a full tide of patriotism to take up arms for their country, and that country has already military instructors enow for training its posse comitatus, ministers have no impediment to encounter; but have the strongest invitatioft, and the most powerful in¬ ducements, to render their country this great and Invaluable service; more great, and more glorious, in my mind, than was rendered her either by Magna Charta, or the Reso¬ lution. This grand improvement in our situation once made, our statesmen could no more lament our future unprepared- * Wri,tt«n in 1798. 48 ness for war ; and would thereby be enabled early to obtain, and then to preserve to us, honourable and permanent peace. But what an impression it would make on all those nations around, now crouching under the rod of France, to see England, not only contending single-handed with the giant they dread, but, in the midst of the conflict, reducing her war taxes, disbanding and sending to their homes her mer¬ cenary troops, and growing stronger and stronger, as she more and more confided in the swords of her citizens ! O! where is that statesman whom modern degeneracy had not reached, and the features of whose character had the hardihood of antiquity ! No state cliicanery, no narrow system of vicious politics, sunk him to the level of the vul¬ gar great. Without dividing he destroyed party; without corrupting he made a venal age unanimous. France sunk! beneath him. With one hand he smote the house of Bourbon^ and xvieldcd hi the other the democracy of Eng¬ land*! But let us proceed : Although the ofEcers of a posse comitatus, to follow the good Saxon custom, ought to be appointed by election, yet, consulting the repose, the dignity, the strength, and permanency of government, at the same time that we look to the solid securities of freedom, it might be sound policy not altogether to overlook those gradations in society which are created by birth, station, knowledge, and property, which contribute to order and subordination; wherefore suitable qualifications for holding the different military ranks might be required. With regard to the ques¬ tion—In whom should reside the pow'er of election ? The answer undoubtedly must be, in the community for whose use and protection the power is to be intrusted, and to whom those who exercise it are to be responsible. The * Extracted from a character of Lord Chatham, circulated as a hand¬ bill. 49 dasis of this power should doubtless be in the general court of the weapontake, consisting of all taxed householders ; with a right of resuming to itself the full exercise of that power, if ever the delegations of it, dictated by convenience, should be abused. Thus a suitable responsibility of the military officers thoughout the kingdom might be esta¬ blished. By thus returning to the election of all officers of the militia, we should but be so far on our way to a reform of our civil elections. The constitution certainly intended, and for several ages as certainly provided, that all magistrates and officers, whose functions immediately affected the peo¬ ple, should be elected by the people-, because It is fit that the salutary influence of true popular election should have a perpetual operation, and influence, on the mind of every person exercising power on which the people’s peace, pro¬ tection, liberty, and happiness immediately depend. I must be understood to speak of reformed elections ; for in contemplating elections, I cannot be supposed to mean such as should expose our nation to the reproach of having the democratic branch of its legislature, the proper basis of which is public virtue, founded on elections exhibiting a brothel filthiness, a llottenint stupidity, anti an infamous profligacy. Look, Englishmen, across the Atlantic and blush ! The people of every decennary or tithing, or ten house¬ holds, formerly elected not osily the constable, then called chief- pledge, or tithing-man, who was at once both the civil magis¬ trate and the military commander of the tithing, equivalent in military rank to the modern serjeant^ but thev elected also “ the hundreders, (who had the civil authority of high con- “ stable justiciaries, and the military rank of captains) “ and the viscounts or sheriff's-, and likewise the heretochii, “ or leaders of the armies; the same (says the learned Judge H 50 “ Atkins) as, in the dialect of the present age, may he “ called the lord-lieutenants 6r deputydicutenants And Atkins also observes, that “ Sir E dxi'ard Coke, in “ his 2d Institute, in his Exposition of the Stat. of Win- ‘‘ Chester, 1 cap. 10, concerning the elections of coroners “ by the freeholders f, (which ever was so, and so still con- “ tinues) says, there is the same reason for election of “ sheriff's, and so it anciently was, by writ directed to the “ coroner. In like manner were the conservators of the “ peace chosen, in whose place justices of the peace “ now succeed. These were great and high liberties, “ and did belong to the freeholders from all antiqui- “ iy, See. Here we see how well founded was Mr. Pitt's obser¬ vation, “ that the principle of the English constitution is “ REPRESENTATION.” It is indeed its very soul, and once pervaded every member and every fibre with life and energy* All magistracies, civil, military, and judicial, w’ere elective ; and juries were drawn with such impartiality, from the mass of the people, as to have the true (juality of repre¬ sentation ; even the office of King amongst the Saxons was elective originally. I shall only add, that, whatever may be thought of the necessity of other magistracies and authorities being representative, it is indispensable that three of them be strictly so : viz. The House of Commons, Juries, and the Military Commands in an armed inhabitancy. It is impossible that laws should be “ the slate’s col¬ lected will,” unless made by those wlio are elected by, and truly represent, the people; it is equally impossible to be •» Sharp on Congregational Courts, p. IQG. + By freeholders is meant liheri tenentes, the hxe-lwlders in burgage tenure, viz. the ^'householders.” lb. 197. J I'crliumentary and folitical Tracts, 253, 254. 51 n ied “ hij God and our country,'' unless the law be vox po- puli, which makes it vox Dei * ; and unless our jury be drawn from the mass of the community with such imparti¬ ality and fairness as virtually, and in all rational effect, to be tliat “ countrij" by which alone an Englishman can be le¬ gally judged. And it being an admitted principle that no nation can preserve its liberties, unless it keep the sword in its oxen hands^ it were the height of absurdity for an armed people not to elect all those under whose guidance they should be arrayed and led to battle. Hut, as to the king alone it appertains to have intelii- gence of the designs and movements of foreign enemies, and to plan the general operations tor defeating invasion, we see the reason why generals, being intrusted with the exe¬ cution of these plans and operations, should be of the king s appointment.—How admirable is this whole system ! How invaluable the genuine constitution of England ! First, the people, by their representatives, are to make their own laws : Secondly, by their representatives^ those law's are be applied to their own actions: And, thirdly, in their own persons, under the guidance of representatives elected for the purposes of order and regularity, they are to defend their laws and liberties with their ouni swords; for this last is a case to which, by a law of nature, it is or¬ dained that representation cannot extend: for that nation which parts with its sword parts with its liberty ; and the sum of its subsequent enjoyment is mere legal protection, at the discretion of those who have got possession ot the sword : —So true it is that “ the posse.ssion of arms is the distinction “ between slaves and freemen,” And how grand a feature * It is not in a vulgar and presumptuous sense this ancient sentiment is quoted; for if our law be “ the gathered xisdom of ages" and “ the “ perfection of reason,” then it is 1104 only Die voice of Die people, but figuratively (and the figure is beautifnf; and expressive) it is Die voice of Hod also. H 2 \ 52 it is in the character of the ancient Saxon, and how true to- nature, that the form of manumitting his slave, was the gift of A SWORD AND A SPEAR* ! How sinks in the com¬ parison the Roman woollen cap ? Here I would expostulate with those who “ despair of “ the commonwealth,” and^ exhausted of all hope of re¬ form, see no prospect of liberty but in a Revolution. By those best acquainted with constitutional learning it has been an old cbservation that, if the constitution were utterly lost and forgotten, could but its principles be re-discovered and collected, its existence would be soon restored. If such a re¬ storation has been considered as a natural effect of such a cause under such circumstances, how encouraging are our prospects, who have never lost a knowledge of these prin¬ ciples ; who must now practically, and daily, feel their in¬ trinsic excellence; and to whom it must be apparent that ei¬ ther a settled despotism, a revolution f, or a reform, must be the termination of the present state of things ! for that a decided and vast majority of the nation, even of those whose confidence in ministers, and whose blindness to cor¬ ruption and abuse have been the most remarkable, will, in the hour of peril, when the storm threatens to burst, prefer reform to either despotism or revolution my mind is not of a texture to doubt. It is obvious that,^ on the first revival of the system of the fosse comitatus, much legal regulation would be wanting that afterwards would become useless ; and that different regulations would also be necessary in peace and in war : it might, therefore, be adviseable to frame three distinct sta¬ tutes. The first should lay foundations only. The second * riidorical Dissertation on the Antiquity of the English Constitu¬ tion, 185- T Whether -we would avert a revolution bj domestic convulsion or fo¬ reign conquest, we mast fly to reform. 53 statute should carry up the superstructure, and include every¬ thing necessary to giving it effect in time of peace. And tlie third solely apply to war. By this act, the duties of war might be clearly pointed out, and the most prompt alacrity secured ; not merely on the cold principle of military obedience, but on tliose also of a common duty and interest, felt and understood, of national honour, which should not fail to operate ; and of genuine patriotism, which should excite the most lively enthusiasm. To each of these statutes should be assigned, with accurate discrimination, its proper class of enactments; so that the separate provisions of each should have the most complete perspicuity. Here, then, are our means of, raising the people en masse, for national defence ; and of calling into orderly action every particle of the physical power of the state. If these means were not found by the Emperor in his need, it was because an arbitrary government, forbidding the means, is of course denied the end. It is the prerogative of a free nation alone to be unconquerable except by extermination. Al¬ though an arbitrary government be formidable indeed to its own disarmed, ignorant, enslaved, and oppressed subjects, it is too feeble to resist the attacks of an armed people; and in the day of trial must fall! The sole material difficulty attending the whole system will be that of framing the second of the three proposed sta¬ tutes. The care of our ancestors, to insure the possession of arms, is seen in their various enactments to that effect; “ and as much as our progenitors are famed for sometimes “ indulging their genius, a butt of Malmsey could not find “ its way into their cellars without a sheaf of arrows for its “ passport*.” We may, indeed, easily secure an effectual muster of arms, which is in fact the rock of our Lord Hawkcihury’s Discourse, p. 32, oS, 63. 54 FOUNDATION; and \vc ma\', without difficulty, enforce a sufficient training of select corps, and of “the nerves and ligaments” of our inilitarv body; so as on any alarm ofdan- ,^r, to be soon in a posture of unassailable defence. But he who has read the human heart, and has any taste for that po¬ licy which from early antiquity to the present hour has been the admiration of the wise and the good, will know how desirable it is to ann at higher and nobler ends; and to a wise lawgiver how prccticable it is thus to unite the exercise of rights w'ith the pertorinaiice ct duties; thus to combine public services with public honours'; and thus to render even manly pastimes, and elegant pleasures, subservient to the noblest purposes of public good ; so as to give to a law for upholding in constant vigour this system, at once so compre¬ hensive and so grand, a self-enforcing principle, adequate to the great end in view—that of preserving, in full splendour, during the security of peace, those military virtues that are our safety in war ; on which account it was that “ the public games cf ancient governments consisted prin- “ cipally of martial entertainments.” And from the noble author I am now quoting, I must also transcribe an account of a military festival observed by the modern Src'iss, which is wmrthy of admiration: “ The surprising acts of valour, “ which the Srt'iss miiitia has performed, has induced an in- “ genious writer to draw a parallel between the military “ achievements of this little collection of cantons, and those “ of the free states of Greece : He puts in competition with “ the battle of that oi Morgarten ; where 1300 “ S-ji'iss routed the army of the Archduke Leopold, consisting “ of 2 u,000 men, and killed twice their own number: He “ considers the action of Sempach, where the same Archduke “ lost his life, and 20,000 of his men vs'ere routed by 1600 “ Sxifiss, as a more surprising victory than that of Pla/ea “ and, to crown all, the battle that was fought in the pass of “ JJ'eten, in the canton of Glaris, is a copy that exceeds its 03 “ original which was fought at Thermopylae ; for as 300 “ Spartans fried to repel the army of Persia in those straits, “ and all perished in the attempt, so, in such another defile, “ 350 attacked at least SOOO Austrians, and gained the “ field of battle.” “ It is surprising,” says this author, “ what a spirit the “ remembrance of this action instils into this people; they ' “ yearly celebrate it by a public procession on the spot where “ if was fought; and where eleven pillars, erected for that “ purpose, shew the places where those heroes eleven times “ rallied; at each pillar they offer up thanks to God; and, “ when they come to the last, one of their best orators “ makes a panegyiic in praise of these three hundred and “ iifty men, and at the end of his oration reads a list of their “ names, in the same manner as the Spar tans the names “ of those who fell at Thcrmopijlae carved on brass, to “ transmit theij' fame to posterity.” To frame institutions for preserving alive a true martial spirit in the profound security of peace, is indeed a task de¬ manding the penetration of an Aristotle, the genius of a Plato, the energy of a Lycurgus, and the virtue of an Aristides ;—\n short, demanding one worthy to tread in the hallowed footsteps of the godiWk^ Alfred; but, alas! the tear which rushes to my eye reminds me Jones is no more ! — What he could have achieved alone must therefore be extracted from the collected vcisdom and joint labours of se¬ veral : and thus the system receive the la.>t finishing touch of excellence ; fitting it to impress on the national character the indelible stamp of dignity and independence, and the mi¬ litary aspect of high-souled freedom. And it is our consola¬ tion that in our books, and I trust also in the hearts of thou¬ sands, are to be found the principles on which our system must rest; and that we have men capable of their appli¬ cation. The author has himself, in his late work, ci.tit’el “ 1 he Trident,” suggested, and pointed out the advantages of periodical games and festivals, as well as of occasional celebrations of naval and military triumphs, at a magnifi¬ cent hieronaulicon or naval tanpie, proposed to be erected on a great scale near the metropolis, as a monument ot na¬ tional glory, a nursery of national art, and a school of na¬ tional manners and public virtue. It would not only add great lustre to such festivals for a large brigade of the armed people to assist at the celebra¬ tions, but it must likewise produce effects the most beneficial. Such a brigade, draughted in proportion to population from all the military districts of the kingdom, and the indi¬ viduals taken, partly by right, in consequence of recorded merit, and partly by election, would constitute, as it were, a body of deputies from a martial nation to a congress of national art, arms, emulation and glory. Previously en¬ camped at the Tlieronauticon, •“ Sacred to virtue, valour, genius, taste * to prepare for their evolutions in the presence of an assem¬ bled people, flocking from all parts of the empire, and from every civilized state ; and in the presence, more especially, of the best soldiers of all countries, attracted as were the Greeks to Olympia, to witness the gay, the solemn, and the splendid spectacles, how would It be possible, for the arm.ed citizens of such a brigade, not to feel the same inspi¬ ration as formed such men as Xenophon and Epnminondas ? And what a perpetual stimulus would here be, throughout the whole posse comitatus, to secure the honour of being in the brigade on these occasions ! How would it be possible, that such institutions should not elevate the national character, and improve the national taste ; or not be productive of ex¬ cellence of every kindf ? Here, then, is one of those self-en- * Trident, p. 87. + By an act of the French senate we sec that gannes on tlic principle aiere reGoromended three years ago arc now adopted for France. 57 forcing principles, by which our revived posse coinit&tus might be preserved from future decay. The following composition intended for insertion at p. 197 of “ The Tridentf in a second edition, being not unsuit¬ able to the present occasion, as alluding to the two grand essentials, civil and military, of the constitution, is here presented to the reader, who must suppose himself at a national festiva,! in the liieronaiiticon, where, afterthe repast, the musical entertainments are introduced by this ITELUDIUM. 1. Celestial maidsHigh-minded jouth ! Bright gems of chastity and Irutii! Adorn your festal Bard ! ^'milc mantling bowls! Joy’s circling flood, then, drowning cares, Breathe, Harp, rnolian wild-note airs. Shall waft a keen delight to nautic souls. 2 . With hapless damsel, hopeless swain. In melting melody complain ; With jocund lay salute successful love; But grandly pour the strain along, Sublime as soaring Milton’s song, The stedfast patriot’s lofty mind to move. 3 . Responsive to a wondrous hand. Thou once obey’dst a king’s command. Where glory’s fav’riie child thee, slumb’ring, woke. Camp’d hosts to quell ; the Muses woo ; Fell Pagan hearts to Faith subdue, And mildly mould them to the civic yoke. 4. Now tell us of his tender care Of England's liberties, aud where, His laws among, their shield may e’er be found ; Then, sweeter than the sweetest note Of Philomela’s warbling throat, Tby harmony his deathless praise shall sounjr I 58 5. Now, now, brave Youths, to glory dear! My birth-right arras ! my sword ! ray spear! And don, sweet Maids, my robe, rich type of law. With duties wrought, and rights of man. Sage legislation’s noblest plan, A state well-pois’d to rule, and statesmen awe. 6 . Let these grey locks, and wrinkled brows, * Gay Freedom’s classic cap enclose. Dark Mona’s sacred branch these temples crown *! O then, belov’d companions, I, In fiery song that seeks the sky. Will consecrate our Albion to renown. 7. While I, immortal Alfred ! sing. Strike thou the sounding Saxon string +! Th’ arouzing strain be, patriot spirit )hine | ! In Albion’s cause each bosom fire ! A love of liberty inspire. Intrepid, pure, unperishing, divine! Supposing the iveapontakes, so formed as has been .stated, to be at the same time our elective districts for return¬ ing one member each to the House of Commons, perhaps there could not be a more suitable division ot the country, or of the community, for such a purpose. It is apparent, that in the formation of either weapontakes, or elective dis~ * The author, since composing this Preludiura, has been gratified in discovering that Milton speaks of “ a poet, soaring in the high regions of his fancy, with his garland and singing robes about him.”—S^ee Reasons of Church Government in Birch’s Collection, i. 59. T As all English liberty and good govemnvent flows from the clear and wholesome fountain of our Saxon Constitution, to that fountain, whenever the stream becomes obstructed, or turbid with iini)urity, we must ascend, for the waters of political life; taking care to restore their free and healthful current; and to exclude from their channel the sluggish, foul, and noxious waters of servitude and debasement. + In the strain of Alfred, let parliaments and princes legislate and rule, and then, they need no higher felicity or praise. 59 tricts, tlie right piinciple of division is by population’, Avhereas the formation of military districts will best be governed 'on principles of space. And if, on the ma¬ ture consideration of military men, it should appear that our districts and sub-divisions, as well as the arrangements pro¬ posed, are rightly calculated for answering the ends in view, it would then at least be desirable that no difficulties should stand in the way of correcting the present extreme and very inconvenient inequality of our counties ; and of completing our system by new modelling them: for as a principal pait of the merit of the system consists in having an armed inha¬ bitancy to constitute the strength of the civil pozixpr, so that system must attain to tlie highest degree of perfection, when the civil and military divisions of the country are correspon¬ dent, and the arrangements of the two services go hand in hand, mutually serving and supporting each other. This union of the two duties was strictly attended to by yllfred-, although he left the disproportions between the counties much as we have found them. When we contemplate the simplicity, uniformity, and exact proportions of the other parts of his system, we must conclude some insuperable difficulty stood in the way; or that he would have perfected the divisions of his kingdom by an equalization of the counties. But, doubtless, had the Danes been as formidable to him as the French are to us, he would have made all minor con¬ siderations give way to the indispensable one of combining with every portion of the coast, its full proportion of the inland country, by an indissoluble union for its support and defence, as proposed in these pages; where it will be seen that the sea-shore of every sub-division is, as it w'ere, the front of an immense military column reaching to the very centre of the kingdom; organized into every useful species of corps, but under one supreme head ; ever in rea¬ diness at a moment’s warning ; and its collected force con¬ sisting of an army immensely more numerous than any 60 that could possibly be brought against it. “ Having shown,” says Sir William Jones, “ the nature and extent of the “ posse comitaluum, and proved that it is required by law “ to be equal in its exertion to a well-disciplined army, ‘ • i have established the proposition which I undertook to “ demonstrate*.” Should it ever be thought adviseable to equalize the counties, the number of them might be kept nearly the same as at present, by comprehending three counties in each military sub-division, making in the whole forty-eight, in¬ stead of fifty-two. In this distribution, an annexation, of adjoining weapontakes, equal to about the third part of the surface of a military sub-division, would constitute a county. Should cither prejudice or other more substantial reasoi> stand in the way of perfecting our system of defence, on the best and clearest principles, by altering the present limits of counties, perhaps it might be a good expedient to form our districts and sub-divisions by throwing into them the counties as they now stand, which might be done- thus, viz. First. Northumberland Durham Yorkshire Second. Lincolnshire Nottinghamshire Leicestershire Rutlandshire Norfolk Suffolk Cambridgeshire H unt i ngdonshire N orthamptonshire Third. Essex London Middlesex Inquiry into the Legal Means of suppressing Riots, 34. 61 Hertfordshire Bedfordshire Bucks Kent Sussex Surry Fourth. Hampshire Berkshire Dorsetshire Wiltshire Gloucestershire Fifth. Devonshire Cornwal Somersetshire Sixth. Monmouthshire Glamorganshire Carmarthenshire Pembrokeshire Cardiganshire Brecknockshire Merionethshire Carnarvonshire Anglesey Denbighshire Flintshire Montgomeryshire Radnorshire Seventh. Cheshire Lancashire Cumberland Westmoreland Eighth, or Central. Derbyshire Staffordshire Shropshire Herefordshire Worcestershire Warwickshire Oxfordshire To those unreflecting and timid persons who may still imagine a general arming to be dangerom to governvient, it may be adviseable to say a few words. What then more decisive can be said than that Alfred, when he armed the whole community, thought not so? Nay, by his penetrating mind, it was seen that it is the imiversalitij of arms which is the very secret for giving a government of freedom and 62 law undisturbed tranquillity and resistless power. All that is wanting to this effect is simplicity of arrangement, and strictness ot regulation. Nor are we left to mere reasoning on this question ; for there is no historical fact better established than that in his reign, and owing to the very system of an universal arming, the authority of law, and the energy of the civil power, which comprei'.end the whole of government, were carried to a height of perfection never exhibited to the view of mankind in anv other age or nation. Let any man com¬ pare this with what has so often happened in our own times, and he cannot be at a loss to see to'which system, that of an armed inhabitancy, or that ot a standing army, a pre¬ ference is due. Let him look back to the first establish¬ ment of turnpikes, or to the first raising the partial modern militia both in England and Scotland; when insurrection¬ ary proceedings caused the effusion of much blood : Let him call to mind the hundreds of tumults that have dis¬ turbed the public tranquillity, particulaily in our large towns: Let him take a retrospect of what happened in St. George's Fields, in the beginning of the present reign, the infamous conflagrations at Birmingham in 1794, and the infernal proceedings in the capital in the year 1780, and then let him ask himself, if any one of these events, so alarming and so calamitous to the people, and so disgraceful to go¬ vernment, could possibly have taken place, had the system ot the immortal Alfred been in use and vigour. After the celebrated example of that great king’s reign, it cannot be said this is only supposing the arms will be em¬ ployed in suppoj't of law', in which case the irresistible power of government is admitted : nor can it with propriety be asked, what w'ould be the consequence, if they should be turned against it? I confess I should not know' how to an¬ swer such a questif)n, better than bv asking such another.— What, then, would be the consequence f the wateis of the / C3 Thames, the Severn, and the Humber., and of all our other rivers, were to turn against their own sources, to climb tire hills from whence by the law of nature they descend, and to pour their streams into the country instead of the ocean ? Can any one, pretending to reason, imagine a free people, having a legislature in which they were substantially repre¬ sented, and their community regulated and preserved by a law emanating, through such a medium, iheTUSclves ,— can any one, I ask, imagine, such a people so circum¬ stanced, capable of uniting the power of their own arms, to destroy their own work, their own prosperity, their own happiness?—Has any man yet dreamed the people of the American States, because really a free armed people, are therefore likely to use their arms against their own govern¬ ments; which, so far from having a standing army, have not amongst them a single professional soldier ? The sup¬ position is too absurd to stand for a moment. But no man can look into history without perceiving that, wherever mercenary soldiers and standing armies have been introduced, there the true government of the stale has invariably been subverted, by those who had th/c ccmi- mand of the armies. Look through the annals of the world,” says Lord Liverpool, “ and see it any one instance of a militia can be “ produced, that was seditious of itself; or of a people who, “ when the sword was put into their hands, converted it to “ their own destruction. - Fi ee states have almost always “ been subject to commotions, and the same have generally “ been defended by a militia ; but that the military esta- “ blishment of such a people were the cause of their com- “ motions can never be proved ;—the republic of Carthage “ is a singular instance of a free people that owed their de- “ fence to mercenary soldiers; and yet she was nevertheless “ fertile in dissensionsand though Rome had as many “ soldiers as citizens, though her senators and plebeians had “ frequent contests for power, wdiere the balance was un- 64 “ equally adjusted, yet her people, when in their greatest “ fury, and when driven by injustice almost to despair, “ never once had recourse to arms; they urged their claims “ by supplications and secession ; and, though disciplined and “ ready at all times to take up arms in defence of their coun- “ try, they never lifted up a hand against it: for several “ centuries not a life was lost in all their contentions; and “ it was not until the nature of their armies teas changed^ “ until their legions received pcty, were transported into “ distant provinces^ and never suffered to return to their “ domestic occupations ; in a word, not until the honest “ militiamen of Rome were changed into standing forces, “ that their contests blazed out into civil wars destructive to “ the commonwealth By a system of defence on right principles, we should not only reduce the expense of our army but of our navy also; which, by a large increase of pay, and many indul¬ gences unknown when I was upon service, is become much more expensive than formerly; for, so far as the defence of Great Britain should be in question, we need scarcely de¬ tain a ship from services of real utility ; and, consequently, if our ships are now properly denominated our icooden xvalls, a very great expense might be saved, or many more ships might be employed to guardLet us put a case. I will suppose an attempt at invasion in the county w'here I live, and that the enemy’s force collected in ihe ports of Holland may choose their time for coming over. They shall have fifty thousand men ; of which five thousand shall be caval¬ ry, and a plentiful train of artillery. I will suppose our first intelligence the sight of their approaching fleet. Signals give the alarm, and our whole military sub division is in¬ stantly in motion. It will be remembered that it has four parks of artillery at its military stations; wdiich I should sup- Lord Hawkesbury’s Discourse, p. 49. 65 pose might be advantageously fixed as follows; namely, one at the midway point on the high road between G^'imsbij and Louth, or nearly so ; one, at the point where the turnpike road from Alford unites with the turnpike road from Louth to Spilsb}/, or nearly so ; one, at Tatlersul, where there is a bridire across the river Witham ; and one, at or near the point where the turnpike road from Donninglon unites w’ith rhe turnpike road from Sleaford to Bourne, which is part of the road from London to Barton, through Lincoln ; Each of these parks I suppose to be provided with thirty pieces of horse-artillery. By consulting the recent returns of popu¬ lation, I perceive the sub-division cannot contain so few as 60,000 fighting men ; that the other sub-divisions of the district must contain 60,000 more, total 120,000; and that the central district abutting upon the interior boundary of these two sub-divisions, being much more populous, could, even after providing a succour of 20,000 men for the S. W. district, as formerly proposed, furnish at once 70,000, to be added to the former 120,000, besides holding back a reserve of 70,000 men, for succouring, if necessary, any other part of the coast that might be attacked. Here, then, for en¬ countering 50,000 invaders, we have, exclusive of pioneers, and men attached to the cannon, carriages, &c. &c. a total of 190,000 men completely armed ; of whom 6200 w'ould be cavalry ; and the total of their artillery would amount to 300 pieces of cannon. When I consider the magnitude of the supposed enemy’* equipment, the arranging of their ships, the disposition for the debarkation, the landing of their artillery and am¬ munition, camp equipage, stores, and provisions, these may well be supposed to take up more time than the assembling of 60,000 men, to oppose them in front, and the bringing up at least ninety pieces cf cannon. IVIeanwhile, the horses and draught oxen being driven off, but no other driving of the country depriving us of a single peasant, or confusing our K 66 operations, the progress of the enemy, so opposed, as I have said, must necessarily be very slow. But we will not, for a while, oppose him too obstinately; we will only, availing ourselves of our superior knowledge of the country, gall him at every step; constantly engaging, hut still retreating from hedge to hedge, and bank to bank, breaking up the roads by which his artillery and carriages must pass, and compelling him to hght for every inch of ground. Thus obstructed, how many nules a day can he advance ? After incessant marching, and incessant fighting, for three days, his numbers every liour diminishing, ours every hour incrca-ing, and having been harassed with alarms at least of his camp being stormed each night, and perhaps real attacks, we will suppose him advanced fifteen miles into the country: I had rather it was thirty; and therefore it shall be so admitted. By the fourtli morning, if not sooner, he must find upon each of his flanks a new army much greater than his own, and of fresh troops ; and corps like¬ wise penetrating on each side into his rear ; and the army in his front now also double its original number. It must be unnecessary to carry our suppositions any fur¬ ther : and tlie truth is that, let but our preparedness for , war be only such as it must be, if both government and peo¬ ple do not shamefully desert those duties which all ought to know, and do not abandon to its overthrow a constitu¬ tion wliich all ought to support, no invasion of our coun¬ try at all would ever be dreamed of ; for, were we duly pre¬ pared, no enemy in his senses could expect even to make good a landing without losing half his force, nor to pene¬ trate a single day’s march without a total surrender, like that of our own army at Ostend, after passing but a single night on the sea-beach. This was an army fifteen hundred men, who had been tempted to hazard a landing when they could not retreat on account of the wtathcr, in consequence of their 67 intelligence that the enemy had only a smaU force at Ost- enf Ne-ucport, and Bruges; but at day break the next morning they found themselves^surrounded, as Captain Pop- ham in his letter expresses it, “ by several thousands of the national troops.” In Ireland, on the contrary, where defence depended on a standing army, and where Lord Conncallis had tiveniy thousand troops on foot, nine hundred Frenchmen landed at Killala, gained advantages over the army of General Luke, lost eight days in waiting to be joined by the Irish, then advanced, “ drove the country, and carried with them all the horses*,” and penetrated to the heart of the king¬ dom before they were overpowered. It will be observed that, in this drama of an invasion, I have not consigned to the flames the corn-stacks of the farmer, nor driven his flocks and his herds into the interior; but merely contented myself with simply removing out ot the way of tlie enemy, as his resources, horses and draught oxen. This is no oversight; for as I am certain of sub¬ duing that enemy, I see no necessity of committing any such waste and destruction, but the contrary; for when we shall push an army into his rear, we shall ourselves want the cat¬ tle and grain for our subsistence; and I should think the pike or spear-armed peasantry much better employed, as pioneers and drivers of cannon, than as desolaters and drivers of cattle. On this part of iny subject something more remains to be said hereafter. I have, indeed, here supposed only one invasion ; where¬ as we might be invaded at two, or three, or four points at the same time. But if I have supposed only one attack, it will be remembered that it was with a large army, and yet that I put in motion fdr the defence only one maritime mili- * General Lake’s Letter. K 2 68 tary district; leaving ail the rest \n perfect tranquillity., and without diminishing their own means of a similar defence, by drawing away from them a single man. Let us then suppose that, instead of one invasion, we have four ; and, if you please, on the same day ; two of the hostile armies con¬ taining 50,000 men each; and the other two 25,000 each; beyond which, it is imagined, no man w'ill carry his ideas of probability, until another Paul of Muscovy may unite with France, and carry into the confederacy Denmark and Swe¬ den. Now having, as it will be recollected, left in the central district 10,000 men, and CO pieces ot cannon, each of our two maritime districts, that is attacked by an enemy 50,000 strong, has the same means of defence as 1 have already de¬ scribed ; and the other two, respectively attacked by only half the force, have means of resistance still greater in pio- portion, and more concentrated. Here, then, although your whole navy were guarding Ireland, or otherwise wholly out of the question, and you had in one and the same day four such invasions on any four points of the coast at the option of the enemy, the inha¬ bitants of the three individual districts not attacked might, in fact, be following tlie plough or their other occupations in perfect tranquillity, and without any necessity of sending suc¬ cours beyond their own limits, within whiclr there would re¬ main SCO,000 fighting men. 1 would have it likewise no¬ ticed by the reader that, although I begin witlr defensive fighting, mine is not a Fabian system, so much celebrated by histoiians, but which, God foibid, should ever be prac¬ tised in this country ! When Hannibal invaded the Ro¬ mans, he maintained himself in rlieir lexntory Jifitenyeens: But when Bonaparte shall invade the English, if he be not sick of his enterprise \x\ fifteen hours, and have not surren¬ dered in one third part cAfifteen days, those who are respon¬ sible for the defence ought to lose their heads. 69 I CHAPTER III. EXPOSTULATION’ WITH THE AUTHORS OF THE STATUTES, COMMONLY CALLED THE GENERAL DEFENCE ACTS. It must have been noticed, by all observers of what passes in parliament, that our most eminent statesmen, while discussing the means of security, all directed their thoughts more or less to the constitutional mode of defence, by posse coviitatiis, and all seemed to speak as if it had been taken as a guide to their judgment. I particularly al¬ lude to Lord Grenville, Mr. Pitt, and Mr. JVindhum ; Mr. Sheridan, Mr. Vorke, (then Secretary at War, but now Secretary of State) and the presiding Minister. If, there¬ fore, the statutes for arming the people have not come from their hands so perfect as might have been wished, perhaps we ought, in candour, to make for them the same apology as Sir William Jones, no unlearned ccnsticutional lawyer, and one who had not then on his shoulders the burden of a public office, appears to have made for himself, when he wrote his admirable Inquiry into the Legal Means ojsup¬ pressing Riots, xvith u constitutional Plan of future De¬ fence ; in which he carefully treats the subject of the posse comitatus and as he more particularly proceeded therein to make for gentlemen in general. “ It is,” says he, “ in every one’s mouth, that, on all “ violent breaches of the peace, the shei itF ot the county “ is not only authorized but commanded to raise the posse “ comitatus, and forcibly to suppress the tumult: but, if “ most of those who use this expression wdll examine “ their own minds, they will presently perceive that they “ utter words which convey to them no distinct idea, and TO “ and that the poioer cf the county, like many other “ powers in nature and jurisprudence, is very ill ascertained, “ and very imperfectly comprenencieJ.” (p. 11.) In observing upon the system of defence adopted by mi-' nistcrs, let us be as much disposed to give them praise, for what they have done well, as to question the fitness of those parts of their work of which we cannot approve; but, put¬ ting personal praise or dispraise out of the question, let us look impartially at the plan itself; let us try it by the test of the constitution; let us try it on military principles; and let us try it by the rules of plain reasoning; for plans of defence, on ■which all men are to act, all men ought to tmderstand. On what I may think defects in this plan 1 mean to touch very lightly; but it were greatly to be wished the authors of it would scrutinize it, with a sincere desire to free it from whatever may be unconstitutional, unmilitary, or ill calcu¬ lated for combining, in one convenient, simple, energetic plan of resistance, those who dwell on the coast with those who inhabit the interior. I have already shown how the Constitution v/isely provides for that combining of tbe external with the internal parts of the community, on a plan which all can understand, and upon which all, for that reason, can act without con¬ fusion or disorder; and, as nearly as may be, without the possibility of an erroneous movement. A plan, by means . of which, every particle of national force might, on one uniform, simple, all-embracing system, with ease be brought into action, with the utmost celerity, and the most perfect order, must inspire into all hearts a contidence which cannot be inspired by any other system. But, let us recommend to the authors of the new' system a thorough investigation of it, arranging their observations as follow s; namely, 1st. On the proposed continuance of the military service •f the civil state : 71 2d. On volunteer and optional services: 3d. On the conditions of acceptance: 4th. On the mode of arming : 5th. On the classes : 6th. On the liability of persons in the civil state to be im¬ pressed and daughted into the ranks of the mercenary troops, and subjected to the articles of war : 7th. On the discretionary and suspending powers confer¬ red by the statutes : 8th. On the express provisions for desolating our own country every where in front of an advancing enemy ; and 9th. On the security given our country of not being made THE SEAT OF WAR. First, then, seeing that under the statute (43 Geo. III. c. 96) the “ military services” of the volunteers and all others enrolled are only to have continuance “ during the present 'War," let it be considered how this corresponds with the con¬ stitution, with a necessary economy in our future military establishment—and with national security either in war or peace, while France shall remain a gigantic military despo¬ tism, grasping at universal dominion with a keener appetite, and a far broader basis, than ancient Rome. When on these several points we shall have acquired “ distinct ideas," it will be seen, I presume, that instead of a mere temporarv substitute for the military branch of the consti¬ tution, it ought to be “ restored to full vigour. AND ENERGY,” to give permanent security for the peace and the existence of the state. Secondhj, touching volunteer and optional services, al¬ though the question is open to other remarks, the author will now do little more than repeat a few w^ords which the act of the late war, now for the most part copied by 34 Geo. III. c. 55, formerly drew from him : “ This, at first sight, may appear conciliating; but it i ancing, by various steps, to perfec- “ tion. They withstood the repeated attempts of both pa- pal innovation and regal oppression; and though their “ struggles frequently produced violent fevers in the state, “ yet the Constitution came forth in more perfect “ health, and some new security was obtained for our free- “ dom ; and whilst almost every other nation of Europe, “ who, like us, descended from one free and common stock, “ long ago became the subjects of arbitrary power, and re- “ signed their liberty, this country has always proved a faith- “ ful guardian of that sacred deposit, and has alone improved “ the blessing.” Are we not, indeed, at this moment, in a striking manner, in respect of the military branch of our Constitution* calling it back to its frst principles ? And who, except Bo¬ naparte, is afraid of the consequences? And who, in God’s name, except Bonaparte, and a certain base-minded clan, the retail hawkers, pedlars, and auctioneers of our borough wares, and their owners, would be alarmed, if this calling hack to frst principles extended likewise to the civil branch of that Constitution? The Corsican, we may be assured, is the great and good ally of these ti'affickers, ready to aid them by his services, or his subsidies, or friendly counsels. We know his agreement with them in opinion. We re¬ member his founding the late French Consular Constitution 103 on “ Liberty, Equality, and the Representative Sv's- TEM which “ Represent ative System,” modelled by his hand, with its due proportion of patronage and in¬ fluence, is exactly wliat its creator intended ; that is to say, in sliadow and mockery, it is civil representation ; in substance and calamity it is military dominion, with its never-failing concomitant, taxation at the -JcUl of him who rules by the sxcord instead of the sceptre; to the great benefit of France, and to the extraoidinary satisfaction of the rest of Europe. When the Nabob of Arcot had a point to carry in this country, he very sensibly sent his emissaries amongst those to whom I have alluded, and quietly bought of them his eight or nine seats. And when the horrid African man- trade was. If possible, to be upheld against the almost universal humanity and justice of this nation, manifested by petitions innumerable, the market of the speculators in the English Borough man-trade was remarkably brisk ; their commodities had many bidders at good prices amongst the commercial agents of Jamaica, and were bought by wholesale; and the consequence was that the gold of Ja¬ maica prevailed over the justice and humanity of Eng¬ land. Is Bonaparte, then, the only politician to overlook his own interest f Is he the only statesman who knows not where to place to most advantage his commercial agents; or the only potentate who has no gold at his command I Hear me, ye defenders of the state ! Hear me, ye advo¬ cates for UNANIMITY ! freedom and a heartfelt attach¬ ment to our governynent be the very basis, the life, the soul of defence on right principles, shut up the swind- 1 ling shop, and arrest that canker-worm that has well nigh eaten to the very core of your liberties ! Remove that wide-spreading grief and discontent that does, and neces¬ sarily must, reside In every reflecting bosom, at a taxatmi discretionary in the minister of the day, and at a corrupt 104 - influence that pervades, poisons, and debilitates every de¬ partment of the state, by substituting a corrupt parlia¬ mentary interest for public virtue and merit, as the recom¬ mendation to every employment ! Call back your Consti¬ tution to tliose Jirst principles for which, and for which alone, it is the object of England’s attachment, and the admiration of enlightened nations .'—Unanimity raised on hollow foundations is the house of the foolish man ! which he built upon the sand : when the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, it fell, and great was the fall of it. A unanimity built on the rock of the Constitution is that alone which can defy the storm. Mere universal travelling in the same track, either from coercion, or for quiet against absurd prejudice, is the una¬ nimity of sheep before the driver. The unanimity of men is of the head, the heart, the lifted arm. It is the unani¬ mity of reason and conviction, of passion and energy. It glows in the bosom, it sparkles in the eye, it flashes from a million of free swords, as they leap from the scab¬ bard, in defence of liberty. Let such alone be the unani¬ mity of England ! 1 . Dear land ! when Alfred first thy sceptre sway’d, Thine anguish he with parent eye survey’d, Invaded, ravag’d by a ruthless foe : Alike, maids, matrons, infants, rustics, feel The murd’rous death-strokes of the Danish steel. And flame-wrapp’d domes bespeak the gen’ral woe. 2 . High Heav’n inspires—the pious hero plans— Embattled, straight, thy civic army stands, A tithing-bas’d ubiquitary force! Maids, matrons, infants, rustics, bleed no more; Thy plains their smites resume ; thy frowning shore The foe astounds; he shuns the fatal course. 105 ' 3. Then, when ferocious Gauls bff’sieg'e thy gale, And come, they boast, to seal thy downward fate, Shalt thou with God-taught Alfred’s lore dispense ? What sage has ris’n, of more exalted name? What lield-form’d warrior, of illustrious fame, Worthier to counsel in thy State’s defence ? 4. Glows in his patriot breast a purer fire ? Can he to more heroic deeds inspire Thy sons, than he who, from an English throne. The Roman, Spartan, and Athenian sage Eclips’d, as all, of each succeeding age ; And, godlike, first in civic wisdom shone ? 5. More dear than life, then, prize his matchless code; Nor time impairs it, nor foul rusts corrode— A beam from God,—pure gold without alloy * * ! Nor sloth, nor base ingratitude, be thine; Each error rectify, oppose design, Laws to defeat, which nothing can destroy. 6 . Wouldst Thou, 0, shame ! an ingrate vile appear ? Or folly’s pupil, when the foe is near? No : wise, as brave, the boastful Gaul defy ! To drive him from thy gate, in foul disgrace. To vindicate thy fame, thy laws, thy race. From Alfred’s bow, 0 let thine arrows fly ! In the present crisis of our affairs. It Is to be hoped that none have influence in the counsels of our country, who “ have betaken themselves to state affairs with souls so un- “ principled in virtue and true generous breedingf,” as to feel insensible to a Jones’s admonition ? Or to remain un- * It is the well-known definition of the common law of England, that it is the perfection of reason. * Milton. F 106 taught by the wisdom,—untouched by the goodness—or unawed from despising or violating the Constitution, by the transcendant name cf an Ai.ered ? The recent patriot declaration of “ Him in whose “ VEINS THE BLOOD OF Alfred FLOWS,” must be high¬ ly gratifying to every lover of his country. “ Embarked “ zoith my brave and loyal people in one common cause, “ it is my fixed determination, if the occasion should arise, “ to share their exertions and their dangers, in defence of “ our Constitution, our Religion, our Laws, and “ Independence.” What sovereign, through the whole range of potentates, except a King of England, can talk to his people of a Constitution, of Laws, of Independence —in which he and they have a common interest, and can make a COMMON c.ause.^ There is not One. On tliis advantage- ground an English king, over kings, consuls and emperors, stands gloriously pre-eminent; and an English people proudly distinguished. Let us give credit to his Majesty’s advisers, for having adopted, as rlie vehicle of the royal sentiments, words which were not lightly chosen; words which conveyed, to those who employed them, the same “ distinct ideas*" of the things expressed as they convey to all others, who are acquainted with the objects mentioned, and that they who penned the speech, as constitutional statesman, conceived its extensive scope; as Englishmen felt its whole force; and, as responsible ministers, intended to give the nation a so¬ lemn and religious pledge that they should be found the Same men in actions as in words. Let us give them credit for having properly discriminated between “our constitution” and its violations; as * Jones's Inquiry, 12. 107 well as between those eternal principles of right reason and justice, which, as being the foundations of our govern¬ ment and the safeguards of our freedom, are emphatically called “ OUR laws,” and mere imperfect statutes, which are too frequently disfigured with unxoise or arbitrary enactments. And when they apply to the people, as well as to the KING, the word independence, let us equally give them credit for meaning that that independence of both, which tliey are now mutually to defend at the hazard of life, is to be a true and genuine independence of each, agreeably to the constitution ; that is, on one hand, an INDEPENDENCE, by means of which the king ought to receive the revenue of his kingdom, and to exercise its executive authority, in conformity only with the wisdom of an INDEPENDENT parliament: and not shamefully to be controlled by, and dependent upon, a few individuals, who should claim to themselves an absolute power over the national purse ; because, forsooth, they were the proprietors ot certain stocks and stones, and other property in certain boroughs, or were the purchasers of borough venality ; and, on the other hand, an independence by which the peo¬ ple ought likewise to have their rights, their liberties, and their property, under the guardianship of such an independent parliament; and not at the disposal of such owners of stocks and stones, or of such traffickers in iniquity. Were such a faction ever to exist, and to acquire the power of holding in bonds both king and people, no¬ thing would be wanting to dissolve the spell of such a ri¬ diculous bondage, but a single review of the corps in Hydc- Park. When king and people, at a period so awful that the passing day cannot close without the contemplation of some mighty danger to the state, are solemnly pledging themselves to each other to meet that danger with their united swords-, 108 let us hope ministers have been actuated by those high thoughts which are the growth of great minds in perilous situations ; and which, by a sense of the right principles of ac¬ tion, inspire fortitude; and, through a consciousness of in¬ tegrity, confer serenity amidst the wildest ragings of the tempest. Such statesmen will know the energies of an English Constitution, military and civil. To those energies they will give full scope. Have the energies been “ disgrace¬ fully neglected?” Such statesmen will ^'■restore them to full vigour they been clogged and deprived of their spring, by falling among filth.'* Such statesmen will cleanse away the filtb, and restore their elasticity. Such Statesmen, w’hen they name “ our Constitution,” aware of the jugglings and impostures that have been carried on under cover of that abused word, will be eager to show, by their conduct, their fidelity to political liberty : when they speak of “ our laws,” they will be equally desirous of manifesting, by actions, their attachment to civil free¬ dom; when they talk of “ our independence,” they will not rest until they have proved their meaning to extend, not merely to an exemption from national vassal- lage to a foreign despot, but an exemption also from all domestic vassallage to any unconstitutional faction; and, in these days of unprincipled ambition, such statesmen will likewise have an honest pride, in contrasting the purity of their owm conduct, with the treachery and hypocrisy of a Bonaparte., who, at the moment he was imitating Crom- vcell in annihilating a legislature, and subjugating his fel¬ low citizens to military despotism, glossed over the foul act with the artful cant of founding a constitution on li¬ berty, EQUALITY, and the representative system. It has been already observed (p. 12.) that those who ad¬ minister an English Constitution, have in their hands the fountains of unanimity and enthusiasm; and this is 109 the case, in a more eminent degree, when they have it in their power, by the restoration of rights the most sa¬ cred, and the revival of institutions the most essential to freedom, to property, to national security and honour, to recommend themselves to the approbation, and to seat themselves in the hearts of the people. And what time, of all others, is the most favourable for reformations of awful magnitude and constitutional grandeur? Not, most as¬ suredly, under the relaxation of peace and fancied security, when danger disappears, when the public mind seeks re¬ pose, when the bow of patriotism is unstrung, and when faction’s hydra, with her thousand heads, has little to deter her from opening all her mouths in the cause of encroach¬ ment and abuse. No:' the season of peril, and of deep anxiety—the season that rivets on the public interest na¬ tional attention, and rouses in the public cause the national energy—the season which brings home to the understand¬ ings and the feelings of a people the weakness of those parts of the constitutional fortress which have fallen into decay—and the season when selfishness and faction dare not encounter the public eye—this is the season for such re¬ formations : And the statesman by whose wisdom and vi¬ gour they are effected, and who thereby conquers both the enemies of his country and her own corruptions, receives from his contemporaries and from posterity, not only of his own but of all nations, a crown of applause, before which the laurel of the proudest warrior appears but an unsightly weed. I am not reporting to ministers any symptoms of remorse, or of returning virtue, in a faction which, in order to fire the public mind with the universal flame of patriotism, ought at this crisis to surrender the inordinate and mis¬ chievous power it possesses, in violation of common right, incompatible with the security of private property, under¬ pining all wholesome discipline in every department of the 1]0 public sen'ice, and damping to a melancholy degree tha' ardour in our country’s cause, which springs from a proud consciousness in the great mass of tire people of possessing real freedom ; for there are infatuations in all desciiptions of vice, which, if the strong hand of reforming power do not interpose, carry on their votaries, with sealed eyes, even to a sure destruction. Neither jam I telling ministers of existing petitions or specific demands at the present mo¬ ment, for the measures to which I am directing their thoughts ; for hope long deferred muketh the heart sick, until disgust, if not alienation, sits for a while brood¬ ing in silence and in apathy over the actions ot the ruler, even in moments most propitious to political salvation. But if I am not telling ministers of active virtue and pa¬ triotic exertions of particular descriptions, I am nevertheless telling them—I hope unnecessarily — how they may save their country. If, unfortunately for us, they shall not see that, to tlrat end, it is necessary to call bark to its Jirst principles, both military and civil, our unpaired Con¬ stitution, it can only be said that, by them, our coun¬ try cannot be saved ; and the greater the efforts that should be made, to carry her in any other way through the present struggle, would only accelerate her fall. \ Ill CHAPTER VI. U.\PREPAREDNESS THE CAUSE OF THE WAR. EFFECTS OF THE CALCULATING SYSTEM OF DEFENCE. SUPERIORITY OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM. MILITARY COUNCIL, FORTIFICATIONS. A WORD TO THE VOLUNTEER'. MI¬ LITARY TRAINING. ARGUMENTS AGAINST DESPOND- “ ENCY. THE SINKING FUND. PLEASING PROSPECT. IM¬ PROVIDENT EXPENSE. (trMERCENARIES. THE BALLOT. FREE MEN ARMED. MINISTERIAL PANIC. RIGHT PRIN¬ CIPLES WHICH ARE NOT REGARDED. MILITARY EDU¬ CATION. UKASE AND CONSCRIPTION. T 0 what cause do you owe the present war ?—Did Bona- parte, with only the wreck of a navy, hope to wrest from you Malta, by force of arms ? Or Gibraltar ? — Or your Nc-a'fotindland fishery ? Or Canada ? Or your West In¬ dia islands ? Or to expel you from your immense empire mihe East? No; notone of these could be his object. But he saw your unpreparedness for war at home ; he was probably as ignorant, as some people on this side of the wa¬ ter, oithc military branch of your Constitution, and was in hopes he could be prepared for invasion before you could be prepared for resistance. He trusted to your bavins; no ma¬ terial resource for military strength, but in the augmentation of your standing army, the expense of which is so ruinous to a country exhausted by debts and taxes; and to the inter¬ ruption he could create to your commerce with the continent, as another stroke upon your finances. Had he seen the mi¬ litary branch of your Constitution “ restored to full vigour and energy,'" and that you could disconcert his projects tc'ithout expense, you would have had no war. This position I lay down as that to which I doubt not 112 e^ery one who has attentively perused these pages will subscribe. We have, it is true, raised a great volunteer force; such as, in addition to regulars and militia, ministers calculate to be sufficient for our defence. But the calculations of Bona¬ parte afford to his mind so different a result that he continues his preparations for invasion, and we continue to experience the expenses of war, and its other inconveniences. So much, then, for the first fruits of calculation. If war in the bowels of our own country should be another of its truits, we shall certainly have to gather that fruit amidst tor¬ rents of blood, and perhaps amongst the ruins of villages re¬ duced to aslics, and of towns set in flames. But, in the ne¬ cessary work and duty of national arming, with calculation we have nothing to do. Had the system of universal arming been only an occasional' provision of our Constitution, as an extraordinary security in time of WAR, then, indeed, there might have been a pre¬ tence for considering such arming as a sul^ect of calculation according to the aspect of the war, and the estimate of dan¬ ger —But in that case our Constitution would have been no better than that of Belgium. With the Constitution of Eng¬ land, however, this is by no means the case; for at all times, whether of war or of peace, it equally prescribes a universal arms-bearing; which, indeed, is necessarily a feature of every government that is not adepotism. Who admits that any government can deny a man the use of one of his eyes Or of one of his hands.? Or the use of clothing, as a defence against the weather.? Or of any other requisite towards his preservation.? How, then, without despotism, can it deny a man the use of arms.? But it has already been pi oved that to preserve society in peace and security is equally the business of all its members; so that what is the mere right of the )nan is the duty of the citizen. Should government even go on, increasing tlte number of 113 {he armed, until the enemy, despairing of success in his at¬ tacks upon our country, should consent to peace, yet, if the arming should stop short one jot of a complete revival of the posse comilalus in a state of permanent arms-bearing» neither ministers nor parliament would be justified. This would still be c.alculation, instead of the constitution ; as well as a ground for other calculations, by which we might in a short time, besides losing our freedom, be again reduced to a state of as complete unpreparedness for defence against invasion as we experienced at the breaking out of the present war ; and be exposed to a fresh rupture, w’henever it might please France to bring upon us the like calamity, with a view of ruining our finances, convulsing our empire, and striking at our existence. Many persons, from not seeing in the cabinet a JFolfc, a Feterborough, or a Marlborough, have anxiously expressed a wish, that a Military Council had been formed, for direct¬ ing the military energies of the country ; particularly for pre¬ serving by our arms the existence of our state. If, indeed, we are to depend for our safety upon military calculation^ we may stand in need of military genius the most transcen- dant ; and even that may fail us : but if, as an j®gis of De¬ fence, w'e shall not reject the Constitution, then, from the moment we shall have armed and organized our population, superior military genius, although still acceptable, will by no means be necessary. Resting this assertion on the case of invasion, which is put to the reader in p. 64, of this w^ork, there I shall leave it without fear of contradiction. We have also our advocates ioxfortijications. — Dock-yards, and other very valuable objects immediately on the coast, a remarkable pass, or point of natural strength, in the way to such valuable objects, or to the capital, which an enemy dare not leave in his rear, might become an object of fortification ; provided an enemy could oiherxeise approach the valuable object before a constitutional force could oppose and over- 0 . 114 power him. Beyond this, fortifications, at the best, are use¬ less and expensive toys, or strong holds dangerous to national freedom ; and, inasmuch as they are contrivances to prevent fighting, they are disgraceful and pernicious. When a large country is not fortified in the swords, and the bravery of its people, it cannot be defended. One parting word to the Volunteers. In consequence of your corps having been made part of a system of defence upon military calculation, the toil of your training has been twenty times as great as, under a constitutional sj/ste?n of defence, it needed to have been. Under the former of those systems, an army is a piece of mechanism ; which, in order to do its work, must he long in the hands of the maker, and highly finished: because success depends upon military refinements under the direction of superior genius: where¬ as, under the latter system, when the success may be trusted to the physical strength of an immense superiority of numbers, and in which no generalship of the enemy can keep him out of the reach of the weapons of determined Englishmen, all that is absolutely necessary is learned very soon indeed. Perhaps also it is part of the necessary policy of standing armies, to make men those machines we observe; to meta¬ morphose their heads with pomatum and powder; to lay a stress upon a whole battalion’s pulling the trigger in the same Instant of time ; and to employ them in doing a thousand things upon a parade which are useless in the field; and, while we shall contrive to arm on the calculating system, the whole of our military force will doubtless be trained after one fashion. Under a constitutional system, we should have the good sense to introduce a new mode of training ; not hut that par¬ ticular corps, in each weapontake, such as the proposed cavaliers and gentlemen at arms, composed, as is proba¬ ble, of men of leisure, might take a higher military polish 115 than the rest: and if all our youth were well instructed while at school, they would enter society ready made soldiers. Were 1 not studious of conciseness, the subject would lead me into some detail which, until we have got a real posse fomitatus, may be premature. It would be the fault of the government if such a militia wanted a proper dicipline; or such a degree of military skill as to cause invaders to fall be¬ fore it, come they in what numbers they might. What want we more ? A few words, also, to those who view our pecuniary si¬ tuation with eves of despondency. As war has been the cause of all our debt, it is our true policy to avoid war; but still with national honour. — How to bring to a conclusion the present war, and to secure to ourselves an honourable and durable peace, I presume these pages have explained. ]t is by being absolutely invulnerable at home, even without a navy ; by having that navy always at command for foreign services, and such a mass of men trained to arms as promptly to furnish armies for those. services in any number. A great nation, if always thus prepared for war, will have durable peace. According to our ministerial financiers, the sinking fund was to discharge the national debt in little more than forty years, although our viilitary and naval establishments should have remained according to their ultimates. Hut, if we can reduce them to less than one half, as should seem to be the necessary effect of restoring the military branch of THE constitution TO FULL VIGOUR AND ENERGY; and, if we can preserve peace tor halt forty years, which should seem to be another necessary effect of that restoration, then our debt would be extinguished in half the time calcu¬ lated by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Thus the reform we recommend, holds out to us a rational prospect of that w’hich, while perpetually subject to new wars, must have been a mere chimera. How long was it, after Mr. Pitt Q-2 116 sung the praises of the sinking fund, before he involved tlie country in a new war ? And how long was it again, after we heard the same song from Mr. Addington, that war again blew all his pecuniary calculations into the air? 1 wish his military calculations may fare better.—Neither of these statesmen could, or pretended to, hold out to you a ra¬ tional ground of expectation, on which any man of experi¬ ence or observation could depend for the continuance of peace, until the national debt should be discharged. But let us Indulge the pleasing hope, presented in the pages of the A;'.gis, that our country may see that happy day. e must tlien anticipate, as the writer on other occasions has observed, from the reduction of taxes, and the altered scale of our expenses, the triumph of our manufactures over com¬ petition in every foreign market; agriculture improved to gardening; commerce and navigation extending their sphere, and awakening to a friendly intercourse, and to civilization) the yet torpid nations ; while the overflowings of wealth and of population would stimulate to new’ enterprise, and beget new colonies, planting the principles of true liberty, and the arts of beneficent trovernment, in the most distant regions of the earth ; making England the friend of man, and man over the face of the globe the friend of England. In pp. 44 and 45 , I have noticed the heavy expense of raising for the present war one hundred thousand men ; stating that in the original bounty money alone, the cost was not less than three millions and a half, which is more than the whole annual revenue of the kingdom of Denmark; and I know it to be the opinion of an experienced and judicious person that, including the expense of carrying the laws for raising these men into execution, and all the consequent charges alluded to in p. 44 , the whole real expense is probably more than double the original bounty ; which makes it up¬ wards of seven millions. This, however, enormous as is the suiTij is not all ; for, in order to induce the Army of Reserve levies to volunteer for general service, they had, as I understand, an additional bounty of seven or eight pounds per man, adding to the former sum about three hun¬ dred thousand pounds more, and making a total of seve7i mil¬ lions three hundred thousand poimds. Well may the appe¬ tite of the armies of Bonparte be whetted for the plunder of such a country ! If such be our expense in a mere preparatory Item, to¬ wards having an army of mercenary troops; and if, even at the present advanced prices of all military equip¬ ments, the sum just mentioned would have furnished hand¬ some musquets, bayonets, belts, and pouches, that is, arms and accoutrements, sufficient to have lasted for three genera¬ tions, for about tzvo millions and a quarter of the civil state, who have no bounties for performing a common duty of so¬ ciety ; or would have provided the like equipment for the twelve hundred thousand men (supposing them all infantry) proposed in these pages to have fire-arms; and have left a surplus of three millions four himdred thousand pounds, or above 2l. IG^. 6d. per man, towards other military expenses; what an additional argument is here for arming according to THE Constitution ! But why want we any arguments at all, where an indis¬ pensable and imperative duty is in question ? I wish Mr. IVindham in particular, comprehensively and dispassionately, to contemplate the subject in all its parts, and in all its aspects, and then to give us his honest opinion, supported by sound reasons, on the best mode of defending that country, to which belongs the English Constitution —whether by the swords of free men, or of mercenaries !—Mercenaries in¬ deed ! who, at such a juncture, sell their services to their country at such a rate 1 When, Instead of the amor patria, or antigallican ardour, avarice has thus deeply struck its deadly root into the heart of that class of whom your mercenary army is composed, what mind, the least endued w'ith foresight, but may foretcl 118 the fatal consequence of the predominance in a country of such soldiers !—Can any considerate statesman look back to the frightful events which, not many years ago, took place at Spilhead, at Plymouth, and at the More ; or can ponder on tlie cause that kept our armies out of camp in 1798 , and not discern a portentous danger in principally, or even materially, confiding our defence to a description of persons who, as a prelude to entering into their country’s service at double tlie pay she gave ten yeais ago, laid that country under a mi¬ litary contribution, greater than Bonaparte has yet col¬ lectively exacted from Spain, Portugal, Holland,^ and the Plans Toums? And if these enormous bounties are squan- " dered for the most part in profligate gratifications, so much the worse; so much the readier, so much the greedier will be those, who have so spent what they have so extorted, for new extortions. Is not this the way to debauch your own defenders, to undermine every idea of a generous devotion to the public cause ; and to ingraft into the bosoms of your army all the vices of mere soldiers of fortune, disposing them to be at the beck of the highest bidder ? Were ministers, instead of perfecting their own plan for arming the civil state, to pursue once more the Insane policy which was a main cause of the fall of Carthage, that of trusting to mercenaries, I should then say, let the successful citizen tremble for his wealth, and the country gentleman for his acres; let the noble be pi epared to part with his coronet and his estate ; and his majesty with his crown : but his ma¬ jesty’s present government has made no small progress in a better system, and I trust will immediately amend its defects, and follow it up ere the great tempter arrive*. But the enormous expense of raising the Arnnj of Re¬ serve was not the worst part of that measure, and, if we guard not against the consequences of unconstitutionally ap¬ plying the BALLOT, we shall rind a still more dreadful evil The author’s disu^ipointmcnt has atlded a second volume to this work. 119 lurking behind. ' We are accustomed to contemplate tlic orders for sending the twentieth, the fifteenth, or the tenth man to the armies of Russia hy an imperial ukase, or to the armies of France by a conscription, as evidence of com¬ plete despotism, with disgust and horror; but we do not seem to observe how fast the English ballot is degenerating into an engine of equal oppi ession; for indeed only a single shade more is now wanting to perfect the similitude between them. So fatal is deviation from the constitution ! And such is the mischief of a tame acquiescence under the'first introduction of an unsound principle ! The first departure from the universality of arms-bearing is of course the first step towards a despotic monopoly of arms ; the monopoly for a 'tvhile is allowed to retain a popular form ; it is termed a militia, and, unless in the case of actual invasion, it is not to leave its own county; it is not to be under military law until called into the field; and it is likewise provided with some cliecks and guards in the quali¬ fications of officers, &c. against becoming too subservient to the crown. Next comes, not only the power of generally removing it from ils own county in time of war, but a sys¬ tematic rule of alicays marching it to a distance from thence -, its principal officers are gratified in the silly vanity of having army rank; and its vacancies in the inferior com¬ missions are filled with officers from the half-pay of the army, &c. &c. In our time still holder steps are taken. It is required to serve in Scotland : It is permitted to volunteer its service to Ireland: Its soldiers are permitted to enlist hy wholesale into the standing army. In the former case, all tlie arts of terror and ill treatment are exercised upon the unwilling; and in the latter case, all the seduotions of money and drink are employed to bribe its men from their original colours, to serve under standards more adapted to the pur¬ poses of absolute power. But, without affecting a correct historical detail, or dwelling on minute features of the sys- 120 tern, all tending to the same point, suffice it to observe, that the militia, as it is still called, has been gradually converted to the character of a mercenary standing army ; and is in fact almost identically the same sort of army as v\'as the na- trje Prussian army of the politic and arbitrary Frederick, which army in time of peace that sagacious prince did not keep annually together much longer than the King of Great Britain keeps together his militia; for Frederick's garri¬ sons, consisting of regiments composed of foreigners, were numerous enough to form a poVerful army always ready in a moment for action. Seeing the enormity of the bounties exacted by the hire¬ ling soldier, how strongly does experience confirm the truth of my observations five years ago, when in the Appeal, Civil and Military, &CC.* I said, “ It becomes every day, and every hour, more and more evident that the natural, the cheap, the only defence of nations, is in an armed inhabitancy. The stimulus to that defence is liberty. With your navies, and your armies, and your millions a year for their support, France is already acquainted: but she only exerts with more alacrity her powers of hostility; and probably ac¬ counts the vastness of your expense to be more in her fa¬ vour than your own. Change your system, and you will change hers. Reform your representation, strike off the bulk of your expense, wliile at the same time you arm more than a million of men, whose equipments for a generation to come w'ill not cost four millions of money, and her threats of iiiyasion will melt into invitations to peace. Regardless of artificial ditch, or mound of inanimate earth, our sea-girt isle would thus become an inaccessible camp ; her sole outwork, nature’s restless wave; and her only inte¬ rior fortification the living bulwark of her w'arlike sons. Her hamlets and villages would pour out their hundreds ; * See p. 97. 121 her towns and cities their thousands and tens of thousands; every rateable house within her wide domain a castle; and every inhabitant a possessor, and a free soldier *; Interested in the security of property and the preservation of peace, proud of the constitution of their ancestors, attached to the laws and customs of their country, and knowing and feeling that the same chain of loyalty bound the commons, the nobles of the land, and the king upon the throne, in one common interest and duty, Englishmen could not be sub¬ dued by the world in arms f.” Notwithstanding the General Defence Act claims, on the part of his majesty, “ the military services of all his liege subjects,” and provides for their being called into action, I have been informed that, during the very passage of the Act through the houses of parliament, some of the ministers were considerably affected by a panic, on contemplating the consequences of their own measure. First Fear his hand, its skill to tr^. Amid the chords bewilder’d laid, And back recoil’d he knew not why, E’en at the sound himself had made. CoLUNi. They were told of danger from arming the people; and, from the very numerous offers of service they have since re¬ jected, and the great degree in which they have suspended the statute, it should seem indeed as if there was some truth in the information. It is not surprising that statesmen, trained in “ the policy of three last centuries,” should be staggered at the new idea of arming at once a million or two * Soldier and Freemen, amongst the ancient Germans, were synoni- mous terms. See lioberlson's Charles VI. p. I. + In this quotation there has been an alteration of only two words re¬ lative to e.f/>e«se; the ratio of which is even altered within tlie short time that has elapsed since the passage was iirst written. P, 122 of men; especially according to the regular operation of the statute they had hastily framed: but, had they begun at the right end of their work, that is, by first arming the house¬ holders assessed to taxes, comprehending about eight hundred thousand persons,— the 'possessors of all the property of the state, —they would then have had a secure foundation; and then to have called on an additional number equal to only half of the first nathed, for likewise carrying fire-arms; taking care at the same time, to have revived all the admirable prin¬ ciples of the laws of posse comitatiis, it is impossible that such an arming could have given alarm to any one having the slightest pretensions to a sound understanding, the slightest knowledge of our constitution, or the slightest regard to the liberties of our country; and it cannot be too earnestly pressed upon ministers, if they would not see their country the SEAT OF WAR, and a stake played for by con¬ tending GENERALS, not to losc a moment in so carrying into effect their owm statute *. To suppose the system of a general arming under the civil magistracy in the smallest degree dangerous to the ordi¬ nary peace of the country, were to suppose it a country without civilization or laws; and that men would be more disposed, or more able, to commit violence, or felony, or open treason, when suppression, or apprehension, or death, would be infinitely more certain and speedy than at present; for w’e all know’, and it is to the scandal of our country, that under our late wretched system, the cm?//jort'er scarcely ever pretended to the ability of quelling a riot, without mili¬ tary aid ; and we have seen too many instances, in which that aid has not arrived until the greatest mischiefs and abo¬ minations have been perpetrated ; whereas, it is a self-evident proposition in police that, if every taxed householder w'cre an armed citizen, every thing tending to a riot must be crushed * Written in 1803. 12S in the bud, and all serious mischief must be prevented. As well might any one argue against tht general possession ol the powers of body or mind, for our self-defence and secu¬ rity, as against the common and general possession of arms. Tt is not the common, but the exclusive possession of arms:— it is not the universality, but the monopoly, which produces the mischief and the abomination ;—and that worst of all mischiefs and abominations, a military government. Suffrage and arms being the rights of nature, well has it been observed that representation is the happiest discovery of political wisdom ; and that, to govern all by all, is the great masterpiece of executive government. When Sir William Temple has remarked on the English Constitution, that, “ it seems to be a strain of what Heraclitus said, was “ the only skill or knowledge of any value in politics, “ which was the secret of governing all by allhe adds, what prince soever can hit off this great secret needs “ know no other for his ovvn safety and happiness, or that “ of the people he governs*.” Let me take leave of the constellation of statesmen, his¬ torians, and philosophers, whose opinions I have quoted on the nature of armies, by observing that, as standing armies and despotic power are the causes which have kept the na¬ tions of Europe in perpetual w'ar—for that is perpetual war which never ceases but as the work-worn peasant ceases to labour through exhaustion, and which again com¬ mences with new means, as the refreshed peasant returns at early morn to his accustomed toil—as standing armies and , despotic power are, I say, the causes of perpetual war, it ought to be the universal prayer that political freedom may be universally established, and such armies universally abolished. It is not even merely from the number, at any time, of which a standing army consists, we are in danger ; but like- I. 220. 124 wise from its being a standmg a.nA permanent {oxct, iiph.e!(f, in the bosom of our freedom, by a law which, to answer its purpose, must necessarily be despotic, and at variance with the mild and beneficent common law of the land. Such an institution, like a taint in the blood, must be the parent of many humours, unfriendly to the health and life of the body politic. The army is a school, in which our youth take impres- si ins and imbibe sentiments that accompany them through life. Whatever other reading may be neglected, the articles of war must be diligently studied. Whatever other duties may be forgotten, those of an officer must be attended to. In that profession it is every moment’s conviction that an army is disgraced and ruined, if discipline be relaxed; and, with every good officer, it is not more a principle of duty to exact from his Inferior a prompt obe¬ dience, than a point of honour to yield it to his superior.— Here then, if impressions thus made, and habits of mind thus formed, be not most powerfully counteracted by such reading and reflection as furnish a counterpoise of constitu¬ tional knowledge, and an ardent love of liberty, we see how gentlemen are unhappily betrayed into principles adverse to freedom ; and how unintentionally and unknowingly they become insensibly moulded to the purposes of arbitrary statesmen. Now, when we consider the fascinating allurements pre¬ sented by a military life, not only to the empty and^the idle part of our youth, but to those also who have in them the best characteristics of manhood, w'e must not be surprised to . find in the army individuals drawn from every family of any rank or consideration in the kingdom, to be formed to the duties of life, and to all they owe their country, in this dan¬ gerous seminary. How widely then must the impressions of a military education be disseminated through the com¬ munity ; and through those classes in particular which have 125 the greatest influence on its destiny ! And is it nor, in a great degree, from this cause we now see in those classes far less of that high-minded independence, and that bold avowal of a love of liberty, which, while the other nations of Eu¬ rope so long lay sunk in servitude, once gave the English gentlemen such a proud pre-eminence ? And, on the reasoning of the Earl of Liverpool, in 1757, on standing armies, I would once more warn government against the unconstitutional and fatal error, of not making tlie arms-bearing of the civil state permanent, instead of having continuance only “ during the present ward’ “ If “ it were possible,” says he, “ to suppose that an army, thus modelled and powerful, could not be induced to de- “ feat, by one hasty blow, the public-spirited labours of so “ many centuries, and it would be even wise in a free peo- “ pie to rely on their virtue in this particular, may we not “ still have reason to apprehend that, by the influence and “ dependence of so large a body, an interest may be created dangerous and repugnant to the spirit of our govern- “ ment, which may direct the legislature in an improper “ manner, though it may not at once subvert it; which will “ operate insensibly to our destruction; and though less “ violent in its progress than the former evil, will be no less “ fatal to the constitution* ?”—“ Nothing, I imagine,” says another able writer, “ could have rendered the keeping up a “ large army, in time of peace, in any degree palatable to “ the representatives of the people, but the consideration “ that the interest which the officers had in the community “ weighed more with them than their interest in that ser- “ vice.” — “ Hut what security have we that our army shall “ always be thus officered? That even those at present in command shall continue in that command? And that “ within the short compass of a year, soldiers of fortune Losil Hawkesbury's Discourse, p. 67. 1*26 might not be advanced in their stead? We have no such security: many a man of birth, character, and fortune, “ has already felt the effects of caprice and resentment. “ Who shall say what further changes this rage of discipline “ may produce ? Is it not possible that these keepers of “ ours may come to resemble those of a seraglio, and “ hate the eery name of liberty, when totally deprived of “ their own f” Should any disaster befall our countr}', in consequence of not having attended to the essentials, civil and military, of our Constitution, the author trusts that, in the judgment of that country and of posterity, he shall stand acquitted of having any share in the blame: had he done less than he has done he should not have stood acquitted in his own judg¬ ment. One word more upon the alarming progress of a most dangerous innovation. It is to be lamented that it is not more the custom of historians than it is, closely and dili¬ gently to study the constitution of a fiee country, before they set about recording its transactions; for it is only in proportion as they possess an intimate acquaintance with the principle of its government, that their works can possess any intrinsic value, and serve either to guide the statesman, to direct the patriot, or to inform the general reader. I have been led into this reflection from contemplating the conse¬ quences that have gradually flowed from tliC error of ne¬ glecting the original, proper, and constitutional militia of England, or tlie power of the counties. By this fatal error, it came to pass, that, in the reign of Charles the Second, and again in the reign of George the Second, when it was seen that the land was naked of proper defence, and there was a growing standing army which gave uneasiness to the nation, the government, w'anting wisdom, virtue, and vigour to restore the military branch of the constitution to its pristine vigoui, and at the same lime infected by a corrupt policy. 127 adopted the idea of enrolling and training only a small pt'u- portion of the men fit to bear'arms, among whom it was a common and universal duty to defend their country and pre¬ serve its tranquillity. Hence, this original error, with the proportion introduced the ballot. The unsound doctrines of a proportion and a ballotf naturally engendered another corruption, that oi sub¬ stitutes expressly legalized for the first time by 13 Charles II. c. 3. In this process we of course find an association of the idea of a ballot, with those of recruiting, and of bounties, for procuring a militia, the duties of which we ought never to forgpt are personal and universal. It only wanted a system of government, in which the principles of despotism and national danger have kept pace with each other, to generate between those unconstitutional deviations from rectitude, and these corruptions of our mili¬ tary system, mischiefs threatening the complete subversion of our liberties. The ballot was seen to be a fit engine for the purpose. We therefore first see it extended from our proportional militia, to the raising of a Provisional Cavalry in the year 1796. We see it again an instrument in the fraiklful system in 179 , of measures, for first augmenting the militia to above 90,000 men, and then immediately re¬ ducing it again to about 30,000, under disreputable inven¬ tions for transferring the difference to tlie standing army*. Here we clearly discern the dishonest and despotic purposes of which the ballot was the main engine, and necessity, created by misgovernment, the pretex. Ministers next, emboldened by success in this scandalous abuse of the ballot, as well as taught by the success of the wolf in the fable, thrust another paw within the fence of * The subsequCQt aug^mentation of the militia to 41,000 again, hi 180.3, is another proof of the wretched uncertainty of our military coun¬ sels. 128 our constitution, when they prevailed upon parliament to sanction the project of what they called the army of reserve, of which I have already taken notice. And that this was intended as a prelude to a complete substitution of the ballot, for the ukase, or the conscription, we can have little doubt, when we see the doctrines with which the ministerial press at the same instant teemed, and how happily they seem cal¬ culated to relieve the ministerial complaint that “ at the “ commencement of war, the state of our military prepa- “ rations has never at all corresponded with the means of “ exertion which the country possessed.”—“ I think that “ an important change, sooner or lal;er, cannot be avoid- “ ed.”—“ The -ichole system ought, as soon as possible, to “ be probed to the bottom.” —“ The services of this body, “ whom I shall characterize by the name of the armjy of re- “ serve, are to be extended io every part of the united king- “ dom. I have stated the principle on which this exten- “ sion is proposed ; and when 1 add, that it is meant to ex- “ tend their services to the islands of Jersey and Guernsey, “ I am confident that no gentleman can have any reason- “ able objection.”—“ The mode in which the ballot is “ to be conducted is to be similar to the ballot for the MILITIA*.” In a House in which for so many years every species of anti-constitutional doctrine had passed current, vye must not be surprised at such language as this, nor at the measure to which it referred passing into law. About the same time, or soon after, we meet with notice in our news-papers f of a pamphlet, said to be written, “ by an Officer, who seems to be a man of intelligence and “ observation,” detailing a plan for a complete application * Mr. Yorke’s speech. See Morning Chronicle, Tuesday, 21st June, 1803. + Morning Chroniclf# 129 of the BALLOT for filling the ranks of the standing army, and of course augmenting it to any extent. He is quoted as saying that the mode of recruiting is ~still “ defective-," he “ takes it for granted that ballot, upon a principle sivii- “ lar to that mw used for the militia, is the most efFec- “ tual, and, in every point of view, the best means of “ RECRUITING THE REGULAR ARMY.” —And how ad¬ mirably had we been prepared for this measure by the act of 43 Geo. III. c. 82, for raising the 50,000 men of the Arm^ of Reserve ,—an amphibious body half militia half regulars, — directed to be carried into execution by “ his Majesty’s Lieu- “ tenants and Deputy Lieutenants, constituted and appointed “ by virtue, or acting in the execution of the several Acts of “ Parliament relating to the militia,” as well as Justices of the Peace, Clerks of the General and Sub-division Meet¬ ings, and the whole of the militia machinery ; not forgetting that “ the wives and families of the corporals and private “ men—shall be entitled to such and the like relief, and “ under such and the like circumstances as the famil'’, “ militiamen ;”—and to complete all, it is “ enat uu, “ that all powers, provisions, rules, regulations, penalties, “ forfeitures, bounties, clauses, matters, and things contained “ in the aforesaid act of the 42d year of his maj'esfy's reign^ “ or in any other act of parliament relative to the “ militia, shall, so far as the same are applicable, and are “ not hereby altered, varied, or repealed, be applied and “ practised for the purpose of raising the men directed to be “ raised by this act, &c.” After all this, I cannot pay any reader so ill a compliment as to imagine he does not see, that, if the present ministers and their system continue, it will not be long before the English Ballot will have precisely the same operation as the Russian Ukase, or the French Conscription; or that he must not be convinced that other ministers and another system are necessary to avert from us so perfect a s 13© tlespotism. Nor will it require much penetration to dis¬ cover, that, in the present relative situation of this country and of France, constitutional ministers could not insure us against this being our early fate, by any other means than truly and elFectually “ restoring to full vigour and energy” THE MILITARY BRANCH OF THE CONSTITUTION. \ END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. Printed by Mercier ai;d Co. Nertbumber-land-court, Strand, London. ENGLAND’S iEGIS OK, THE MILITARY ENERGIES or THE CONSTHTUTIOM. BY JOHN CARTWRIGHT, ESQ. It is not mere war in which we are engaged ; it is a conflict with a rival, and a despotic state, for our politicai. existence. THE THIRD EDITION. N. B. The First Edition made one Part of An Appeal, Civil and Mi¬ litary, on the Subject of the English Constitution. VOL II. Honbon: PUBLISHED BY J. JOHNSON, ST. PAOl’s CHrRCH-YARD. Printed by C. Mercier and Co. No. 6, Northumberland-court, Strand. 1806 . v^'^r V.,;''ij c •' ■i -’ 'j^.-' '11? V BK);! vr^O-WAJCWilt*' /<:• ■•' ■ ' - - ‘■"' • ■ ■ : , ■ A •'5 -/jrATl ui/ :TTf^ '«» ' ' ■} ^:J:- :.,-^*r.. J VJ . . V . f ..Ki J'iXOlfJTr?- , • *' ,.■::< ■ft i‘Ji» t >\;.iv,. r .• .'>V-,k' ^ . :iv.'" ■«-,„ rtfjp 4 ,. , ..j _ .-i : J;n;tJi.-^--ri»i ,h\ .,., M-,. . -■ fS^ ■, ■ ■■> ,i;..M;;./. ut/i.y ,Yi«»• .-M. ,..'.,v; " , n;' •>,’■’■ : V- ' •»;, n,;;i - ,i‘ t,,, ^.. ' ..,_^ . _ ' ^ . I .n .7 t - rvWJihJf ' ■ t /: LivKi ■' ' V- .* IV • • **, . » . - ^ '•'■ > •'^v v' ' ’ . i ‘ . ■f ^ > , 4 ' ;*'■ ■> tuif t■!«».‘'t' • '1 Hi' tsinri^ ' - * 'r'* i^fik I ,' ij J•^»k 4 , ®. ' 2 ♦ . >■■ ^ ' DEDICATION TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLIAM WINDHAM, OSE OF HIS majesty’s PRINCIPAL SECRETARIES OF STATE. Enfield, 24fdb^no^ fi o) tv8al:> dJ(]0)q r{eiJ;gii^.nft )8U(n ! )ibft9cl lijxJj lol jdaua gih'a^ioq tfoil , jictiis^ildo lo d«r!92 .ibiii sd Uum lul'*/ boA ' «iroii>9) £ *idJ^£ ,rao({w yd noil ns o) ^ Ifti'b (X^imsko bns }{!9aiftioyo;^tai ^ a^R i ' luo^iv [lui ol boioi^ei ad lisxfe ruAiaiiUaoo .4 •■'* ^W‘#•' 5 Illl -Xm adiiaedi/s 01 rii2 ^iiioaod aril avcrf MS rl, ' ,i35qtai flaiifn flliw ."Ma" i ^ V' />*' • j * tinsTja2 aldmurf inaibado nont lOoY j . -- ■-< -.=*■ !, J ' ,. ^ J' 1 .thoihwt;iao /mdi 2L ' < ‘-r-- - - - ^ 'v‘*j ' X ,• "* y'*::■: IL I ^ i.'.,j’ir:}l.-.’ ■» , ■ *. '-Ij.:;. ■'••' -| ' ■ *'^1 ENGLAND’S JEGIS; OR THE MILITARY ENERGIES OF THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION. CHAPTER I. Campaign of the Autumn of 1805. Instructive to ^Eng¬ land. True Principles of German Defence. Mr. Pitt's Ministry and Merits. House of Commons. The Au¬ thor's Conduct. Court Faction insensible of Danger. •- The People ought to assemble and speak their Opinion. Late System of Terror. Constitutional System of De- fence. Ministerial System. Volunteer Services. Mi¬ nisterial Discretion. Mr. DunUas [now Lord Melville). Dukes of Bedford and Northumberland. The Stuarts expelled for suspending Laws. Inference. On the tvventv-first day ot June 1805, Mr. Pitt obtains a vote of FIVE MILLIONS, for raising up a continental coalition to curb the ambition of France. In August.the Austrians advance towards French frontier, the Russians following. Thereupon Napoleon puts his troops in motion. In the middle of November he enters Vienna, the capital of Austria, in triumph, having on his march thither defeated £ VOL. II. '2 gteat armies, capturing a large proportion, and driving the rest before him. And on the second of December, in a de¬ cisive action, he defeats at AiLsttvlitz two mighty monarchs his enemies, inconsequence of which he greatly aggrandizes himself, and creates around him new kings, as satellites to the orb of his own greatness. Such are the effects of Mr. Pill's crude projects for “ the DELIVERANCE OF EUROPE.'” Andsuch the resistance made by two coalesced sovereigns commanding a very large pro¬ portion of Europe, furnishing TWELVE millions of fight¬ ing MEN ! Here surely is instruction to those who are de¬ bating “ what may be the best means of defence*.” And Christians who are acquainted with the history of that com¬ monwealth of which God himself is represented in Scripture as having been the legislator, well know how even that small state was provided for defence. “ There xcere in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sxvord; and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand t-” But Englishmen need not go for instruction out of their own constitution and common law; nor consult on this occasion any other than their own god-like Alfred, who, faithful to the liberties of his country, to the laws of Nature, and of Nature’s God, organized his whole people for defensive war, on that inimitable system which has been detailed in the first volume of this work, the revival of which system, as the military branch of our constitution, would give us, as I have shown, one million tri'o hundred thousand valiant men to draw the sword; exclusive of a large remainder of our popu¬ lation, who, armed with pikes or spears, might eventually be of great use in repelling invasion. Do we wSnt to know the value of this system, and its in¬ finite superiority over a system of defence by a standing * Duke of RichffioiMrs Thoughts on the National De&ncs, 1801. + Samuel. 3 trniy? Apply it to the case at this moment before our eyes. It is a case doubly in point ; inasmuch as Austria has not been able to defend herself with the standing mercc- naiy armies of two potent empires; but has fallen in the struggle almost as soon as the contest began. Driven in a few weeks from the Dan to the Becrsheba of his dominions, we have seen the fugitive sovereign become a wretched vic¬ tim to the detested counsels of despotism ; and the civil government of his states administered by magistrates of the conqueror’s appointment! Could such events have happened, had that Emperor given to his people freedom and arms ? With a population affording many millions of fighting men, could the regular armies of France, though every man had been a Bonaparte, have penetrated half way to Vienna ? No : had they in that case been rash enough for the attempt, instead of defeating, they must have been defeated ; instead of capturing, they must have beiin captured ; instead of sub¬ duing, they must have been subdued. I therefore again say —“ It is NOT by the alliance of potentate, with potentate, it is NOT by combining together d’seordant hosts of arbitrary governments, great and small, that our neighbours of Ger¬ many can obtain either safety or independence.” Let her princes make allies of their people; let there be to her earthly thrones no other defence than the Jj'ee man’s sword ; nor to the heavenly throne be raised, in ado¬ ration, any other than -a free man’s voice ; and then, but not till then, shall Germany be capable of assured defence*. And to the contineiitaJ governments, I repeat, stay at home until you have given political liberty to all your states, and put arms into tlie hands of all your people. ‘ What.” say those who granted the five millions, and those who approved of the grant, ‘ Do you wish to see ‘ the torrent of French invasion poured into your country r’ * England's ..Egis, Vol. I. xii. B 2 4 My answer is, ‘ Read and judge, and let those who have not ‘ done their duty towards the defence of England, suffer ‘ the punishment due to their crimes !’ Had her civil and military energies been properly exerted, ministers need not have given five millions of her money to spread the flames and the miseries of war pver the continent, by way of diversion to our enemy’s force; but we might have laughed in security at tl;e idle threat of invasion. Less than half five millions of money spent at home to have invigorated our own industry, and applied in making allies of our own people, and arming and training them for defence of their fields and fire sides, would have put us in a grand and proud attitude of perfect safety ; and would have left our friends on the continent (sufficiently Interested one should think In their own defence, and the balance of power) leisure for consulting on the best means and the best oppor¬ tunities of providing for those objects; and, in my mind, such an example on our part, had they had virtue enough to follow it, would have been of more value to them than tw'enty times five millions of our money, could it even have answered the purposes for which it was given. Given as the minister has given our money ; he has only purchased with it additional dishonour and calamity. Well! I for one am ready to kiss the rod of our chastise¬ ment; I will not murmur at the expenditure of this money, unw’ise and dishonest as, under all circumstances, I esteem such an expenditure to have been, while I see neglected and betrayed the true principles of our defence, provided the prostration of the continent of Europe at the. feet of France, to which the evil counsels of the ministers of this country have so largely contributed, and provided the preparations for our destruction, with increased means in the hands, and increased enmity in the heart of Napoleon, shall but bring us at length to our senses; and determine us, before casting the last die in our present desperate game, on 3 taking the necessary measures for complete security, and for the right application of our native energies for defence; which measures I hold to be “to change the ministry, TO REFORM THE PARLIAMENT, AND TO RESTORE TO FULL VIGOUR AND ENERGY THE MILITARY BRANCH OF OUR CONSTITUTION*’.” Other men may have their nostrums, or may look to other means of withstanding the high-wrought and vindictive ener¬ gies of France, but these alone are, to my apprehension, the means appointed by nature for averting the peril of our situation, and in these alone can I confide. Is our country, in her present conflict for her political existence, at a period when “ England expects every man to do his dutyF safe in the hands of the present ministers ? Considering the whole of the ministry as identified with, and completely subservient to, Mr. Pitt, I answer, no. In justification of this answer I might repeat a great multitude of arguments I have formerly urged, particularly in the Appeal, civil and military, on the Subject of the English' Constitu¬ tion,’’ and in ‘ Tht State of the Nation,’ to show that, power¬ ful as he is in the talent of talking, he is without the smallest pretence to the solid wisdom of a statesman, or the constitu¬ tional integrity of a minister. Here how’ever I will quote but one of those arguments, as applying to his wisdom ; and one other as applying to his integrity, f 'he first occurred in a com¬ parison between “ the capacities and talents of the two men who “ respectively preside over those countries, [France and “ England) and direct their energies where I observed that “ one, grasps the widest combinations of state policy, “ directing with success all ineans to an individual end ; the “ other, has attempted such comblnaticns and miserably “ filled.” How dreadfully in the space of a few months has this observation been verified f ! The second is this; State of the ^'ation, 170. + Ib. 130. 6 If after Mr./’fZ/’s black share in the transactions repotted “ by the Commissioners of Naval Inquiry, and the part he “ has acted in the proceedings we have spoken of *, the “ Nation can tamely bear the continuance of his ministry, “ it is a nation that ought to forget it ever produced Bussells, “ and Sidneys, and Havipdeyis; and to blush at the very “ mention of freedom or public spirit f!” Were there no other earthly reason than the last alluded to, the ministry ought to be changed. So much for the ministry: now for the parliament; mean¬ ing here the House of Commons. Now, unless parliament, while ths national expenditure is sixty millions a year, and when the fate of every family in the kingdom hangs by the thread of national defence against the attack of a Napoleon, be an uselesss institution, common sense will say, and com¬ mon honesty will assent to the proposition, that “ every man" who contributes to those sixty millions, and whose happiness or misery depends on the wisdom and virtue of that parliament, ought to be in a situation “ to do his duty," in electing the members of it; while common prudence will proclaim that, unless we shall be content to see in a short time one of the Bonaparte family on the throne of England, and our country, like the several kingdoms of Italy, Bava¬ ria, Wirtemburg, &cc. an appendage of the Great Nation, we ought to lose no time in reforming, which in the military phrase signifies disbanding, that worst of all our volunteer corps, the Borough Faction. Who can hesitate that looks back to all the voting of that corps To the voting of Lord North's American war? Mr. Pitt's war of 1793? And Mr Addingtoyi's war of 1803 ? Who can hesitate that sees the nation voted into between six and seven hun- * Those for skreening Lord Melville. + State of the Nation, 105. 7 dred millions of debt, every new loan all the while regularly accompanied with a panegyric on our increasing prosperity? But, above all, who can hesitate that has witnessed the fa¬ mous voting of the last session, in the case of Lord Mtl~ villa? It was an aera perfectly singular in the annals of par¬ liament, for by the successive votes of April 8, June 25, and July , we know the unanivious opinion of the House of Commons to have been that his lordship was guilty ; where¬ as, notwithstanding this perfect unanimifi/ of the House, in which the Speaker himself had joined, we recollect that 229 members on the 25th of June voted against a prosecution ; and that 216 voted on the 8th of April against even a cen¬ sure ! !! But what has this voting about Lord Melville to do with national defence? I hear some one ask.—It has to do with national defence ; because national defence is a public interest, requiring public virtue, and honest voting. It will soon be seen how criminal Lord Melville and Mr. Pitl^ and other ministers, have uniformly been in rejecting all the true principles and modes of defence, and in leaving the country dangerously exposed to invasion; and if it be the duty of parliament to control ministers and keep them to their duty, we shall see that the criminality has not been confined to ministers, but that the Borough Faction Is deep in the guilt. Besides ; he who at this awful crisis in the fate of nations can dream of our country’s benefiting by an able administration, however selected, without an honest parliament really chosen by the people, may indeed be a very fit companion for the court tribe w'ho have caused the fall of Austria^ but will never contribute to the saving of England. But let us come to the point in hand. How, I pray, has parliament acquitted itself respecting the military branch of the CONSTITUTION, and laws for defending the coun- $ try ?—read the Earl of Liverpool^ —read Sir William Jones \ —rea*d the Duke of Richmond J—read what I also, a humble advocate for the constitution, have written on the subject § ; and do not forget to read the Acts of Parliament se¬ verally brought forward by Lord Shelburne, towards the close of the American war, by Mr. Dundas (now Lord Melville) in Mr. Pitt's war, and those of Mr. Yorkc and of Mr Pitt himself in Mr. Addington s war, in which we have no prospect left but that of grappling with him on our soil, unless by something better still to be done we make it im¬ practicable to him to pLnt on it a French standard ; in not one of which statutes is the constitution duly respected; in not one of which has the defence of the country been duly provided for ; but in every one of which you will find clear evidence of what Lord Liverpool shows has been the general system of all the European courts for “ these three last centuries ||,” as well as of wliat he emphatically calls “a detestable policy If.” But what are we to expect of parliament, when in order to obtain that concurrence between parliament and a mi¬ nister which is necessary to the public business, and towards w'hicli it used to be thought necessary for the minister to act under the controul of public wisdom and public power^ collected in parliament, when the court and borough factions have brought into fashion the monstrous doctrines, that par- ♦ Discourse on the Establishment of a National and Constitutional Force, published in 1757—re-published 1794. + Inquiry into the Legal Means of suppressing Riots, with a Consti¬ tutional Plan of future Defence, 1780. f Thoughts on the National Defence, 1804. ^ Appeal, civil and military, on the Constitution, 1799. England’s /Egis, It!03. It came out the 7th of December, 1803, although the bookseller put the date in the following year. II Discourse on the Establishment of a National and Constitutional Force, 65. S lb. 8. 9 liament must conform to the minister, and yet that par¬ liament is to be omnipotent over every right of the people? To these factions, and to their minister, who perfectly un¬ derstand each other, these doctrines arc very convenient: to the nation, they are every thing that is pernicious and de¬ structive ; and in no one particular more than in what re¬ spects the defence of our country; as I have In my first vo¬ lume already poved, and in the present shall make still more manifest and unquestionable. It is on these grounds I main¬ tain a reform of parliament to be necessary to national de~ fence. To every other public interest—and we have more to do than merely defend ourselves—that necessity has long been known and felt by all but the corrupt and the ig¬ norant. Prior to Sir William Jones's luminous exhibition of what in respect of defence against invasion is, and must continue to be, the common law of the land., because founded on reason and necessity, and how in ancient times the statute law was made to correspond with the common law, prior, I say, to this work of Sir William Jones, parliaments of mo¬ dern times might have had some small apology for not pass¬ ing statutes for defence on right principles; but since the publication of the work of that great and good man now al¬ luded to, parliaments have had no excuse whatever. No private man is allowed to plead ignorance of any law, or clause of a law, although the statute law alone fills sixteen bulky, close-printed volumes, and the common law is scat¬ tered over at least sixty volumes more, whether he have of¬ fended in any thing important or trivial, in that of which he could be supposed to have a knowledge or not. Are the members of parliament then, men whose immediate duty is that of legislation, to plead ignorance of those great promi¬ nent laws which are essential to the very existence of the state ? Certainly not. Least of all can the present parlia¬ ment plead such ignorance on the matter of defence, because VOL. II. c 10 their attention had been particularly called to the subject by the extreme danger into which the minister had brought the country, as well as by the reiterated declarations of tliat danger by the minister himself, by the immense sums they had voted for a navy to watch the invaders, by the immense expense they had likewise put the nation to for an Army of Reserve, an Additional Force, &c. and by the extravagant prices for mi¬ litia substitutes thereby occasioned. Nor is this all, for when the Bill for amending the Act for Defence and Security of the Realm came before them in 1803, in the preamble of which they were reminded of his Majesty’s power “ of re- “ quiring the military service of all his liege subjects in case “ of an invasion,” they were so pointedly called on to examine what was the spirit and sense of the constitution and com¬ mon law, that I must needs think them inexcusable in pass¬ ing statutes as contrary to that spirit and to that sense, as darkness to light, and in consequence of which the general plan for the defence of the country is to this moment a na¬ tional reproach, and if not amended will doubtless prove the national ruin. Do I hear the voice of court censure fot speaking this language? Am I sneeringly asked, why, when those sta¬ tutes were pending, I did not tender my sage counsels ? I have an answer. At the very breaking out of the war, my book, “ An Appeal, Civil and Military, on the Subject of' the Enghsh Constitution^' was borrowed of me by the Se¬ cretary of a Cabinet Minister; and as I could not know tlie extent of his motive, I earnestly requested liim to put It into the hands of his principal. By the doctrines of that book I .abide, and my present opinions are regulated. Am I asked, \\ hy 1 do not now privately communicate my sentiments to the minister instead of publicly arraigning him, and thus exposing to the enemy the nakedness of the land?—Why privately? He might have read the Appeal, published seven years ago; and published under such remarkable circum¬ stances as leave me no doubt of its having been read by some of the vigilant persons he employed and so well paid for their sedition-hunting services. He might have read the containing the same military doctrines somewhat condensed, which was published two years ago, copies of which I sent to six members of the then cabinet ; some of them now sitting in the cabinet of Mr. Pitt himself. But, alas! to speak the language of the constitution to such a m> nister, were to speak to the deaf adder! What! offer pri¬ vate counsel for preserving the constitution, the laws, and li¬ berties of England, to a minister I have for many years been publicly arraigning as their most deadly enemy Ask me not then why I do not privately offer my thoughts to such a minister ? A^k Lord Liverpool, why, notwithstanding his remonstrances forty-nine years ago, against the traiterous system of “ these three last centuries,” and exposing a “ de- “ testable policy,” the same system and the same policy have ever since been steadily adhered to in the cabinet, notwith¬ standing Iris lordship’s own presence in it for the greater part of that time ? Ask the Duke of Richmond why he exposes the nakedness of the land? He had better means than myself of privately communicating with ministers, and yet his reason¬ ings are all arguments to prove that defence is still griev¬ ously wanted. But it will shortly be seen, that when I could entertain the most distant hope of attention, I did make private communications to ministers on the subject of national defence. To I'eturn, however, from this digression to the necessity of reforming parliament before a riglrt system of defence can be hoped for; I ask on what ground we are to expect that parliament on this particular subject will control the minister ? Has there ever been, before the unfortunate Re¬ ports of the Naval Commissioners, even any apparent dif¬ ference of opinion between them except respecting the two slave trades, that of the West Indies and that of England ? And what is our hope that Mr. Pitt will lebel against the 12 system and the policy of the court faction, conscious as he Is that he holds his place by the tenure of his obedience ? Or what is our ground of expectation, that the court faction can be made to see their own in the public danger ? Could the noblesse of France be made to see their own danger till actually ingulphed in the volcano of Revolution ? Could all the counsels of the wise, or the warnings of prophets, avert from the court of Jerusalem conquest and captivity ? Could the forewarnings even of a Jesus prevail to save the city from final destruction ? And although Belshazzar admitted as true the interpretation of Daniel, and honoured him for it, yet the admonition came too late, for in the same night Belshazzar was slain and another took the kingdom. I cite these as familiar instances to show the stupifying effect of court corruption upon the human mind. When General Mack had advanced with a gallant army towards JJhn, and Bussian armies were on their march to support him ; and while the august sovereign of Austria, Bohemia, Hungary, Moravia, Venice, and the Tyrol, was relieving the toils of government by his innocent amuse¬ ments, amongst which travellers speak of acting plays, ma¬ nufacturing squibs, crackers, and other fireworks, and some¬ times making elegant pastry, or artificial flowers, or some such thing, his courtiers I doubt not were throwing about the squibs of their wit on sending his Bussian bears to teach Frenchmen to dance, and cracking their jokes on the up¬ start, and the humiliations to which he was soon to submit. And if our own court faction by their influence in parlia¬ ment and over the minister, and with the ignorance of, and in¬ sensibility to, every public interest, which is the characteristic of the tribe, shall paralyze the military energies of the English Constitution, they may none of them be awakened out of their dream until the same person who performed that oflace to the courtiers of Vienna, may be upon English ground and in full march for London. 13 Every corrupt court faction is alike; seeing, they see not ; hearing, they hear not; neither do theyunderstand. Our own court faction, sometimes called the faction behind the throne, is very well known to be political Je^cs and Greeks, to whom the constitution is a stumbling block,-and the vene¬ rable common law of the land foolishness. Seeing then how the court faction, the borough faction, and the minister are linked together, I do not see what benefit we are to have from a change of ministers without a reform of parliament; unless a change of ministers and a reform of parliament means thfe same thing; which we know is not the case, for since we have been reasoning and petitioning for a reform of parlia¬ ment, we have had many changes of ministers, but without reform being either the same thing or a consequence of it. We have within that period had the ministries of Lord Rockingham, Lord Shelburne, the Coalition, Mr. Pitt, Mr. Addington, and now of Mr. Pitt again. Per¬ haps the public now look towards Mr. Fox and his friends. But if, in consequence of an Austerlitz panic having seized upon the court and borough factions, those statesmen should be called to the helm, can the factions ever cordially co-ope¬ rate with men they had proscribed and persecuted, traduced, and vilified for twenty years? Can they with such men join in binding up those wounds of the constitution which have been so many times inflicted by their own hands, against all the remonstrances of these very persons ? Can they support them in vidicating the justice of the country, by bringing to punishment any great criminal in whose crimes they have participated, and whose violations of the law and constitution have been all along sanctioned by them¬ selves ? Or, to stick to the point now immediately before us, that of national defence and security ;—would those factions per¬ mit a virtuous ministry practically to prove that which Sir William Jones so clearly demonstrated,— “ That the com- “ mon, and statute, laws of the realm in force at this day “ give the civil state in every county a power^ which, if it “ were perfectly understood and continually prepared, “ would effectually quell any riot or insurrection, without “ assistance from the military, and even without the mo- “ dern riot-act ; by showing the nature and extent of the “ Posse Comitatmnn, and proving that it is required by law “ to be equal in its exertion to a well-disciplined army * ?” And “ That the power so raised may and must be armed wdth such weapons, and act in such orders as shall enable “ them totally to suppress the riot or insurrection, or to rc- “ pel the invaders t*” Would those factions permit such ministers even to intro¬ duce the extended militia proposed by the Duke of Rich- viond of abput 470,000, while even in time of war not more than 30,000 regulars would be required at home ? Much less would they allow the law and constitution to operate ac¬ cording to the doctrine of Sir William Jones, furnishing for defence full 1,200,000 men completely armed, although thus to restore the common law “ to full vigour and energy J” would not only obtain you immediate peace, but preserve it when obtained ? If therefore my countrymen, the good-natured people of England, are not vet prepared to rank themselves with the human cattle of Bohemia, who, if their lord have lost his estate at the gaming-table, are sold with the land; or if the said people of England be not disposed to leave their all and the fate of their posterity to the caie of a court and bo-, rough faction and such a minister as Mr. Pill, to be pro¬ tected as courtiers have protected the people of Austria, they will probably think it is time to interfere a little them- ■* Inquiry into the Legal Means of suppressing Riots, with a Consti¬ tutional Plan of future Defence, 34- + 11). 19- t Ib. 10. 15 selves, for their own preservation, ere the French armies, greatly augmented for their late campaign, and greatly elated by the success of it, shall pour the torrent of invasion into this land. I thus repeat the opinion lately given in “ The State of the Nation f on the urgent necessity of the people assembling in their counties and towns to take care of themselves and their posterity. It is to be sure the opinion of a private man, but it is the opinion of one who has thought much on these subjects. He has not been unobservant of the torpor under which his country has long laboured ; nor is he ignorant of the benumbing effects of upheaping tax upon tax, prosecu¬ tion upon prosecution ; while some parliamentary patriots are driven into secession, and still more are fascinated into silence. He never liked secession. He never could submit to be silenced. In one respect he has found the friends of public liberty more like other men than he could wish to see them. They get wearied by repeated defeats, and dis¬ heartened by long disappointment ; they thus fall into habits of indolence, or grow splenetic, or desponding ; in this tem¬ per they omit to do the public good of which they are capa¬ ble ; they get possessed with dreams of difficulties and dan¬ gers, which in their more ardent days would have vanished at their presence ; they infect one another with irresolution ; they neglect opportunities of disseminating salutary truth and manly sentiments; and, while sacrificing precious moments, in which by the generous energies of public spirit they might rally their careless countrymen around the neglected standard of the constitution, they attempt to justify their own inaction by blaming the inactivity of others, wdio more properly wait for their authoritative example and patriotic invitation. These are not the words of spleen; but I feel, and I expos¬ tulate. Those, to whom the preservation of the state has been in¬ trusted, have not done their duty: They have even been 16 grossly unfaithful to their trust. I know the responsibility attaching to what I say. I may speak in personal danger; but the dangers which threaten my country demands the truth. On the same subject in the year 1799, as already intimated, I delivered the truths on which the safety of Eng¬ land depends, in the “ Appeal,' already referred to, but so dangerous was uttering constitutional trutli then thought, that not a bookseller dared to publish the work. Except by hiring a shop and a servant solely to sell that book I had no means of circulating it, unless privately, which, for its ap¬ pearance of a clandestine transaction, I disdained. For the mines of Potosi, I would not now but have so treated with contempt the then Robesperian system of terror—fit engine of government for such a minister as Mr. Pitt!- —to make known to my countrymen the true military system of Eng¬ land's defence. That model of the system, hateful and full of reproach as it must have been to despotism and its scribes, and opposite as it was to all the habits and prejudices of our professional soldiers, has now stood seven years immoveable as a rock*. As the system is no invention of mine, I may speak of it as I think. I shall therefore say, that in my fixed opi¬ nion nothing else can bid a sure defiance to French invasion, and teach the trembling nations on the continent how to set impassable bounds to the ambition of Napoleon. Such I hold to be that system which no bookseller, with the dread of Mr. Pitt before his eyes, dared in 1799 to publish ! ! ! Between this system and that which was introduced in 1803 * Tlie work was dedicated to the officers of the British army; and in the preface-the author says, “ They being the best judges in the “ science of war, he throws out to them an amicable challenge, liberally “ and candidly to discuss that military system of which he treats; and “ he means it as a friendly provocation to them, to say all that can be “ said to its prejudice, and in defence of the system under which they “ now act.” 17 by Mr. J 'orke, and has been adopted and persevered in to this moment by Mr. Fitt, let us draw a short comparison. Tire first preliminary observation to be made is, that these ministers, copying the Israelites who rejected the govern¬ ment of God, set about the defence of England by first re¬ jecting the constitution: the military energies of which, compared with those of their own system—if system it can be called—are as iron to clay, or as adamant to the fragile handiwork of the potter. Troubled with the dangers into which their wretched counsels had brought their country, the framers of the system of 1803, having heard of the mi¬ litary strength of the constitution, turned that way their eyes, but with no fricndlv thoughts. Something was to be done, and as it should seem they studied the military system of the constitution only to learn how at every step they might elude it, evade it, or pervert it; while yet they might make much show with little effect; and obtain the reputation of strength, with real weakness; for ignorant indeed must they have been, to have taken that for military strength, which any smatterer in the science could have told them was imbecility. And what can equal the impolicy of thus at¬ tempting to impose upon the sagacity of a Napoleon ; or by such shallow manoeuvres to deter him from his project of invasion ! Such statesmen are the very children who thrust their heads into a bush, and then cry aloud, ‘ You can’t see me !’ Where the system of the constitution is beautifully sim¬ ple, their project is comple.K and confused; where that makes the duty of the armed individual easy, convenient, delightful ; this, makes It harassing, ruinous, and disgusting; where the constitutional system inspires the invincible enthusiasm of freedom, their substitute, by its dragooning degradations, is inconsistent with every idea of English liberty, repulsive to every English feeling. That which for a thousand years VOL. II. n 18 has been known for law, they style “ prerogativeand that which has the eternal basis of common law, common sense, and common right, they represent as altogether dependent upon royal, that is, ministerial discretion ; and by their exercise of that discretion, they even neglected to arm or exercise a tenth part of the men they enrolled ; as if to arm and to exercise, when the legions of a Napoleon are ex¬ pected among us, were to be left to the last moment of “ ac- “ tual invasion, or on the appearance of the enemy in force “ upon the coast!” How is such conduct to be charac¬ terised ? At such a period of national danger, a danger which they created and were themselves the loudest to proclaim, pur¬ posely to refuse to restore from a state of neglect the vene¬ rable military branch of the constitution, or, in other words, that martial system that belongs to, that is coeval with, and the only security for, its civil existence, these innovators— who forsooth hate alterations^ and cannot endure reforms !— these innovators, I say, thrust upon us a crude medley of Im¬ becility, confusion, and ministerial discretion -, —a diseased, rickety, and ephemeral brat begotten by that Discretion upon the strumpet Flattery. For constitutional order, discipline, and firm union, these military legislators give us, in a peril¬ ous novelty, a military rope of sand with incurable irregu¬ larity and insubordination. They “ allowed themselves,” says the Duke of Richmond, “ to be seduced by a proposi- “ tion to introduce the substitute of uncertain, and never- to-be-made-orderly corps of volunteers for a regular or- ganization of the whole force of the nation by law, and “ under military discipline*.'’ On a former occasion I have said, “ It is a distinguish- * Thoughts on the National Defence, 50. 19 Ing feature of Mr. Dundas's Act, that it calls only for the •voluntary services of the people ; and every individual is to have an option. This, at first sight, may appear conciliat¬ ing ; but it is calculated to make wrong impressions, and to perpetuate the present great ignorance of the English Constitution j which is, unquestionably, one of the greatest of ALL OUR NATIONAL MISFORTUNES. That constitu¬ tion—a constitution of liberty and beneficence—knowing it to be equally the duty of every man to defend the laws and liberties of his country, and the peace, property, and happi¬ ness of the community of which he is a member,—confi¬ dently, justly, and honourably presumes every man a vo¬ lunteer in such a cause; and the law consequently should dictate only a proper organization of the collective force, the means of rendering it effective, and the regulations under Avhich it shall be exerted &:c. But this plausible invitation to voluntary service was the hypocritical mask and artifice for covering “ the detestable policy” of the faction behind the throne, to which the Fitts and Dundasses, their colleagues and creatures, have been uniformly subservient. These men,—so steady to the inte¬ rests of their crew, so faithless to those of their country ! — so knowing in the crooked ways of intrigue, so averse from the straight paths of the constitution !—could not fail to discern the immediate advantages their faction were to derive from this device of voluntary service of men to be raised “ forde- “ fence of their counties, town, or coasts, or for the general “ defence of the kingdom, during .the present waif;” be¬ cause it furnished them with the pretence of introducing into their system for defence of the realm “ the fiend discre¬ tion dependent upon which these politicians, these place- * Appeal, Civil and Military, on the Constitution, 140. + 1794. f Sir W. Jones. See his Ode — “ What constitutes a State n 2 20 holders, these men of office, these any thing but statesmen, did not scruple to place the security of the state ; —that state which the free principles of the constitution, and the grand system of the mighty Alfred, confides to the keeping of every member ot the community able to bear arms in its de¬ fence. And what was the use these men who ruled by discord and division immediately made of this engine of discretion, but to arm their own partizans exclusively ! At a meeting at Boston, where their insidious plan, then in circulation^ was proposed, pointing out its unconstitutional nature and tendency, I moved to reject it, and to invite all taxed house¬ holders to purchase arms and ammunition, and to appoint a committee of magistrates and other gentlemen, to examine the common law of the land, for instruction how such force was to be organized and regulated. Finding no one to second me, I purchased a chest of arms and ammu¬ nition for myself and family. Their act of that day (1794, c. 31) begins thus “ Where¬ as the utmost exertions are now requisite for Increasing the military force of this kingdom but except their ex¬ ertions to increase the mercenary part of that military force, I repeat that, in contempt of the constitution and common law of the land, they took good care, by the exercise of the discretion they had secured to themselves, to arm none but their own partizans exclusively; and during the whole remainder of that war, much as our dangers increased, they still clung to this discretionary power, as may be seen again by their statute of 1798 (c. 27.) and, we remember how thev used it. How at that time 1 thouglit of their pro¬ ceedings may be seen by the following quotations from my “ Appeal,” written in 1798, and published 1799. — “ I come to speak of the discretionary power claimed by Mr. Dun- das (now Lord Melville) for himself, as War Secretary, and for every Lord Lieutenant of a county under him, in re- 21 spect of those among the people of England who shall, or who shall not, be permitted to bear arms. Of such a discretionary po-ccr in a lord lieutenant, or a Mr. Dnndas, or in even the king himself, the constitution knows no more than it does of an Aga, a Bashaw, or a Grand Seig¬ nior.” —“ When Mr. Dundas talks of ‘ the common law of the land,’ and ‘ the spirit of the constitution,’ it were to be wished he would not misrepresent them. The words imputed to him, as given in the Morning Chronicle of May 9th, 1798, are these: ‘ It would not, he believed, be asserted, that anv subject of the realm ought to take up and bear arms without the assent and authority of the exe¬ cutive government of the country ?”—“ It is high time that Englishmen thought seriously on these important ques¬ tions, so flippantly decided by Mr. Dnndas, in the teeth of the English constitution, of reason, and of nature. And such are the men who hold the reins of English government, when the state, fiom its internal corruptions and external danger, is shaken to its centre !*” In afterwards commenting on Mr. Dimdas's circular let¬ ters of the 9th and 15th of May, 1798, (his act having passed the 5th of April preceding) saying to the Lords Lieutenants “ that his Majesty’s ministers have it in con- “ templation to propose some measures to parliament, with “ a view to check such dangerous proceedings,” as Eng¬ lishmen “ exercising themselves in the use of arms, with- “ out any commissions or authority from his Majesty, or “ any person competent to give such commissions or autho- “ rity,” Good God! exclaimed I, to what a condition are we brought, when a secretary of state shall dare to pro¬ claim to the whole kingdom such an intention ! When an alleged suspicion, that is perfectly ridiculous, and a charge ilppeal, Civil and Military, on Eoglisb Constitution, 189. 191. 22 of certain men’s doing that which, in fact, it is not only the right, but the duly of every man io do, and which, at this perilous season, is a proof of his loyalty and of the interest he takes in his country’s welfare, is to be the mon¬ strous ground of an act, to seal at one stroke the slavery of the nation ? for what were a statute to forbid the use of arms to any but persons licensed by the crown, but a char¬ ter of slavery as complete and as perfect as was ever con¬ ceived in the brain of a tyrant ! There is nothing in Eng¬ lish history with which it may be mentioned, but the igno¬ minious cURFEvv ; at the horrible tolling of which, a wretched, dejected people, instead of tasting abroad the freshness of the evening breeze, or the converse of friends and freemen, still more refreshing, were doomed to hide themselves within their melancholy dwellings, without fire, without light, but not without heart-rending reflections as to the unspeakable miseries of despotism. Mr. Dundas (now Lord Melville), who on the 9th of May, signed the avowal of the intention of which I have spoken, is still a minister of the king of England ! ! ! What! is it sheer ignorance of our constitution,—an utter unacquaintance with our books and legal reading, that betrays this luinister into such proposals.'’ or is it a con¬ tempt for the principles of our government, a design to sub¬ vert it, and a spirit of audacious experiment on the patience of the English people } Patient, indeed, must that people be, when a man who has holden such language, still holds his place as a minister of their country, while they hold their tongues as if nothing were amiss ! No reflecting who has read with attention these pages, will, I apprehend, be surprised, that there should be men who ‘ have it in contemplation’ to plunge their last dagger into the vitals of their country, and to tear 23 up by the roots at one effort the whole constitution and common law of the land That Mr. JJundas (now Lord Melville') could not be ignorant of the existence of the English posse co- mitatus is plain, because in his introductory speech to his bill of 1798, he tells the House, that the respective powers of the lieutenants and of the sheriffs over that posse comitatus had been taken into consideration, and the bill was intended to remove doubts which had arisen on the subject. Now, with this evidence before us to show that this system of voluntary service, and of its appendage discretion, was not introduced through ignorance ; and with the evidence likewise of our law-books (including Sir William learned and luminous tract on the subject f, published eighteen years before) for proving what is im¬ peratively enjoined by the constitution and common law of the land, on the point of arming for defence ; and tor show¬ ing that both this voluntary service J and this discretion are perfect novelties, and the most mischievous innovations, the former of them destructive of all discipline and defen¬ sive energy, as the latter is destructive of the constitution itself; I must needs think that it must be apparent to every sound underslanding, that in this conduct of Mr. Dundas (now Lord Melville) and of Mr. J^^itt his colleague in all * 1 95. Written in June, 1798. + Inquiry’ into the Legal Mode of suppressing Riots, with a consti- tional Plan of future Defence, 1780. J Do not let this voluntary service, hy the statutes of Mr. Dundas and Mr. Pitt, be confounded with the voluntary associations of Sir Jones, tlie objects of which were for the associates “ to provide theni- “ selves with arms, and pay for learning the use of them” — “ for the “ sole purpose of joining the power, when legally summoned”—“ as “ part of the CiwY state;” as the duty of every man until his repeated com¬ plaint and exhortation “ that our laws have been disgracefully neglected, “ and ought to be restored to full vigour and energy,” should be attended {.0. lb. 31. I 24 this nefarious business, there is a ground of impeachment a* far transcending that “ violation of law” we have heard so much of, as the value of our constitutional liberties tran¬ scends the value of any sum of money we can count, or as the wickedness of the rankest treason transcends that of petty larceny. With what insolence, in the days of their despotic sway —such is the short-sightedness of the wicked !—was this discretion exercised ! How contemptuously was Mr. Tier¬ ney, and “ a vast proportion of his constituents,” treated in the rejection of “ their services for the defence of their country” by a Lord of the Bedchamber*! For to such humble placemen, to render it the more galling, was this tremendous discretion delegated. But w’hen a Scotch law¬ yer, by subserviency to the system of the faction behind the throne, had worked his way to power, and become the most confidential associate in office with such a minister as Mr. Pitt, no bounds could limit his arrogance, but the first nobility of England were to be grossly insulted by the e.xer- cise of this discretion. Mr. Dundas (now Lord Melville) dared to reject tire services of the Dukes of Bedford and Northumberland at the head of their tenantry ; this rejection to the former accompanied with an Insolent letter t- This maintainer of the impudent doctrine that no Englishmen can “ train and exercise themselves in the use of arms “ without commission or authority from his Majesty, or any “ person competent to give such commission or authority L” dared, I say, even in the cases of two of the first nobility of the kingdom for rank and character, to reject their offers of service, dared thus to frustrate efforts towards defence of the realm against foreign invasion, even when the parties ♦ Appeal, Civil and Military, on the Constitution, IS6. + Ib. lyt). f Ih. 195. 25 offered, in consideration of the public danger, to act under this very discretionary power! Here, then, was not an unintentional, a pardonable over¬ looking of the constitution and common law of the land, re¬ specting the posse coviitatiis ; for of that I have shown Mr. Dundas was not ignorant : here was not a mere neglect of ministerial duty, by which, if those noblemen and their te¬ nantry had been backward in defending their country, or had been deficient in “ training and exercising themselves in the use of arms,” as that constitution and common law required them to do, it was incumbent on the king’s minister to have reminded them of this duty ; and if, through change of arms and usages, that minister found the regulating statutes for carrying into effect the perpetually-existing constitutional and common-law principle of arms-bearing for defence of the realm, had become obsolete, it was further incumbent on him to have brought a bill or bills into parliament, as Sir William Jones had several years before shown to be necessary, “ to restore to full vigour and energy *” that constitutional and common-law principle, so as to have given it complete operative effect; and then, if necessary, to have enforced obedience to such law on all persons alike, for Sir William Jones expressly says, “ The Power of the County includes “ the whole civil state, from the duke to the peasant; while “ the military statef, as such, forms no part of that power, “ being under a different command, and subject to a different “ lawj.” Now if a minister, one who had been a practising lawyer, and who has particularly adverted to the common law of the case, instead of keeping in the straight path of so plain a duty, imposes upon an innocent, confiding, all-believing parliament, and obtains from it by misrepresentation a statute not only in- * Inquiry info Legal Mode, &c. 10. Ib. If, ^ Meaning tbe Standing Army. E 26 consistent with the Constitution and the Common Law of the Land, but stabbing them to the vitals, he may not possibly commit that technical species of crime for which a special pleader would hang him at a sessions in the Old Bailey ; but I am greatly deficient in judgment if such an attempt to betray, to subvert, and to destroy the state, be not that highest species of treason which is elsewhere cognizable at a proper season. And when in the course of these pages shall be seen the peril in which Mr. Pitt, and Mr. Diindas, and the rest of their school, have, by such conduct, to this day left the kingdom, while it was at any hour, since they involved it in these wars of unexampled danger, in their pow’er to have placed it in perfect safety, impregnable by halt a dozen Napoleons with half a dozen invading armies, the reader may, in this one feature of the character of these men, dis¬ cover a clew by which to estimate the degree in which they have proved a scourge to their countrij. A whole race of our hereditary princes were expelled from the throne for endeavouring “ to subvert and extirpate the laws and liber- “ ties of this kingdom,” and particularly “ by assuming and “ exercising a power of dispensing with and suspending of “ laws, and the execution of laws, without consent of “ parliament*;” and I trust that neither Mr. Dundas (now Lord Melville) nor Mr. Pitt, nor any of the school, even with the consent of a deceived, an Innocent, a confiding, and all-believing parliament, will ever be permitted to subvert and extirpate those “ laws and liberties,” by fraudfully “ dispens ing with and suspending” the military half of the Constitu- tun, and the whole immutable common law of the land respecting the County Power, in favour of any species of domestic despotism ■, or by putting tbe lives and estates of Englishmen out of the protection of those “ laws and liber¬ ties,” by which alone they can be securely defended against * See the Bill of Rights. 27 the attacks of such a conqueror as hirn by whom they are now threatened. In ancient times, there was no want of discipline ; espe¬ cially in the marches between England znA Scotland, where the inveterate habit of reciprocal depredation required that the dicipline should be prompt and severe, for it was necessary to the dwellers there always to be on the alert. We accord¬ ingly find it an article in the Border Laws “ That every “ man do rise and follow the fray, upon blowing of horn, “ shout, or outcry ; upon pain of death In all other parts of the kingdom it was the law, and is so to this mo¬ ment, that “ upon cry made for weapons to keep the peace “ all subjects who are not continually prest, or ready, for “ the orders of the Sheriff on an alarm in the country, “ are exposed to the royal displeasure, and to a severe “ penalty f;” and a regular organization of the County Power for making it “ equal in its exertions to a well-disci- “ plined army J:” for repelling invasion implies of course that this discipline shall be provided for by law. Preparatory to the discipline for real service, we must have the discipline for training and exercise; and the trailring which the arms used in former days required was by law enforced under constant penalties for neglect; that training began in youth, and upon these obvious principles, 1st, that that which was a national duty, was to be made a national practice; 2dly, to prevent the duty becoming either difficult or irksome in manhood, this practice ought to be rooted in early habit, while we are boys, and so become a second nature, easy and familiar to the end of our lives ; and ddly, that for the perfection of bodily exercises, as in swimming, skaiting, dancing, and the like, youth is the season for laying the foundations. The training of the Pinglish * Hist, ami Antiq. of VV'ostm. and Cumberland, Ixxxiii. •I Jones’s Inquiry, 27. 2'J. | Ib. S-t. E 2 youtli to archery tlierefore began, as vve see by the 33 Hen¬ ry VIII. c. 9. at seven years of age, and hence that e.xcel- lence which gave renown to the English bowmen all over Europe, as dreadful in the battle. It is on these principles that in my “ Appeal, civil and 'military^ on the Subject of the Co}istitution,” (116) I ob¬ served that “ a new generation must necessarily spring up, before the sptem could arrive at that high finish and per¬ fection of which it is capable; as an essential feature of it must be, to have the use of arms well taught in all schools and seminaries of learning whatever, where our youth after twelve years of age should be brought up ; under such sanc¬ tions as should absolutely insure the attainment of sufficient skill; than which nothing could be more easy.” Any one who wishes to see the extreme facility, alacrity, and precision, with which very young boys learn all the elementary exercises and tactics of war, and the delight they take in rhem, may be highly gratified by visiting the Mili¬ tary Asylum at Chelsea. These things need not abridge the hours of study one moment. They should merely oc¬ cupy a part of the time allotted for exercise ; and in that view are as good as whipping a top, and better than mar¬ bles; the body early receives a noble air, and the mind im¬ bibes manly sentiments. To what perfection must a militia, so trained from infancy, soon attain all the movements of field duty! and with what a sovereign contempt must an English nation so prepared think of French invasion ! And so far would be this part of education from having any ill effect upon the national manners, character, and ha¬ bits in advanced life, that we might expect the contrary in an eminent degree. Young men above the labouring class, whether of spirit qualifying them for war, or of vanity for strutting in regimentals, are now allured from peaceful occu¬ pations when arms-bearing is a monopoly attended with flat¬ tering distinctions in dress, or lifts a youth up from the 29 counter to the rank of a gentleman. In the lower classes again, when the monopoly of arms creates a demand for a large standing army, recruiting serjeants, with their decoy- men decorated with ribbons, and all the temptations of drink and money, draw into the military prolcssion great numbers not fit for military duties. In both cases habits, morals, and characters are very frequently ruined. In such a state of society the military part of the community have too much licentiousness, and the civil part are apt to have too little of a true manly fortitude and spirit; as a scientific boxer is apt to be overbearing and insolent, while he who can neither give nor parry a blow degenerates into timidity. A universal acquaintance with the use of arms, by remov¬ ing the consciousness of great superiority or great inferiority, must, on the contrary, promote a general manliness equally removed from pusillanimity or arrogance ; and safe from the temptations of idleness, vanity, or vice, for entering into the regular army ; which, in such a state of things, would be comparatively small, and would always find an overflowing of recruits from the conscious energies of young men who, in a military schooling from their very Infancy, felt the life of a soldier, with all its labours and its dangers, that for \vhich they were formed ; so that, instead of the arts of se¬ duction now in use for filling the ranks, and receiving all as fish that come to the net, our regular regiments would have the picking and culling among the most high-spirited young men of the country. The truth is, that, in the same proportion as we are com¬ mercial and manufacturing, we require the manly habit of arms-bearing, as a counteraction of the tendencies of traffic to render us avaricious, low-minded, mean, servile, and pusillanimous ; and consequently an easy conquest to hardy and warlike invaders. Those commercial Belgte and Batavians whom we have seen over-run and subdued by France without even a strug- 30 glir, once stood as a rampart against the mightiest monar¬ chies. It was the excess of trade that in particular has been the ruin of Holland ; vvliich even more than a hundred and thirty vears ago began sensibly to decline, as observed by Sir IVilliam Temple when our ambassador to the States. His words are full of instruction to Englishvien, First, says he, “ I take their vast trade, which was an occasion of their “ greatness, to have been one likewise of their fall, by “ having wholly diverted the genius of their native subjects, “ and inhabitants, from arms, to traffic and the arts of “ peace ; leaving the whole fortune of their later wars to “ foreign and mercenary troops; which much abased the “ courage of their nation, and made the burghers of so “ little moment towards the defence of their towns ; whereas “ in the famous sieges of Haerlem, yJlcmer, and Leyden, “ they had made such brave and fierce defences, as broke “ the heart of the Spcniisll armies, and the fortune of their “ affairs*.” To the same effect I might quote some pages of intrinsic wisdom from Lord Liverpool’s “ Discourse on the Esta¬ blishment of a National and Constitutional Force but I will content myself with a few short extracts. “ When “ Spain,” says he, “ produced the best soldier's in Europe, “ and her aim was universal empire, her commerce was “ also extensive ; the same spirit made her both brave and “ iradustrious, gave courage to her armies, and life to her “ manufactures,” &c.—“ but when the glory of her arms “ was extinguished, her commerce also decayed, and she “ became at once both lazy arrd unwarlike.” - “ No “ counti-y ever made in a few years so great a progress in “ trade as the United Provinces ; their shipping was at one “ time computed to be more than what belonged to all the * I. 73. 31 “ rest of Europe put together ; and yet their wealth and “ commerce increased in this prodigious manner, while they “ were engaged in a war of fifty years continuance in the “ heart of their own country ; while most of their trading “ towns were fortresses, garrisoned by burghers, and while “ the natives of this republic, from 18 years of age to 60, “ were obliged, by the union of Utrecht, to be armed and “ trained ; hwt since this first established militia has been “ neglected;'' [as the English county power has been] “ since they trusted their defence to foreign mercenaries; “ and since of late they have hardly been defended at all, “ their commerce has been gradually on the decline.” “ Whoever also has but cursorily perused the history of “ our own country must have observed, that those reigns, “ in which the martial spirit of our people has most ap- “ peared, have been no less distinguished by the advances “ that were then made in commerce ; I shall instance onlv “ in the reign of Edxrard Third, when Scotland., “ France, and Spain, felt the successful efforts of our arms ; “ when THE NATIONAL militia” [the posse comitatus proposed in these volumes to be revived] was in vogue, “ often trained, and frequently called into service; when “ the legislature thought it an object worthy their attention, “ and passed several laws in its favour,—and what part of “ our annals can produce more good statutes in support of “ trade? Or did eomiwerce at any time take larger strides “ towards perfection ?” “ Commerce loves securitv, not such as can arise from “ the protection of another, but such as places the power in “ her own hands ; and on which she can fully depend.— “ No one will labour to “ have,” if he is not certain he “ shall be able to “ hold.” A precarious possession would “ be but a bad encouragement to dangerous voyages and “ painful occupations; and no merchant will with zeal and “ pleasure apply himself to trade, unless he has a good 32. “ opinion of the wisdom and conduct of the state, that is to “ secure his acquisitions; that it is established on founda- “ tions xvhich cannot easily be shaken, nor consequently in “ danger of any sudden revolution; and as he requires good “ laws to protect him from domestic oppressions,''^ [written forty-nine years ago] “ so must he no less have a well-con- “ stituted internal force to secure him from foreign inva~ “ sions.” —“ If we leave our country defenceless, the more “ rich it grows, it becomes the more desirable morsel, and “ tempts, as it were, its enemies to destroy it; husband- “ MEN AND ARTIFICERS MUST TURN SOLDIERS, WHEN “ THE CONTEST IS WHO SHALL HAVE THE LAND “ AND MERCHANDIZE*.” ■* Fee p. 41—47. . 33 CHAPTER 11. Defenceless State of the Coast of Lincolnshire. General Defects of the System. The Author's Speech oji the 22(1 of October, 1803. Singular Confirmation of his Sentiments in a Letter from America in 1 801. Chan¬ cellor Morton. I^ord Lyttelton. Sir IF. Temple. LLa- noverian and Belgic Proclamation. ILungarian Levee en ALasse. Expostulation. Supplement to the L'irst Volume noxt) first publislud. lleflections. ALinlsterial Discretion. Their System a probable Cause of Lnvasion. JVisdom (f Alfred. Contrast in the ALinisteriul System. Lord Liverpool. Residing, in October 1803, near the sea-port town of Boston In the county of Lnncoln, the merchants of wliich at that time were become somewhat uneasy on account of depredations tlien making on the coast by a privateer or two of the enemy, I took occasion, after consulting a chart and taking a ride along the shore, to propose a select meet¬ ing of gentlemen, to take into consideration the defenceless state of the coast. At that meeting 1 addressed to the gen¬ tlemen assembled my sentiments ; intended to apprize them of dangers to which thev were exposed, and to which they seemed completely insensible ; dangers infinitely beyond the loss they might sustain from a few lurking privateers ; and to be myself secure against any misapprehension of what I should say, I spoke from a written paper; which paper, at the same time that the resolutions agreed upon by the meet¬ ing were transmitted to government, I enclosed in a letter to the proper minister ; and I now mean to lay it before the public, in order that, on a full consideration of what is of- VOL. II. F 34 fered in both volumes of the “ yFgis,’’ they may judge whether, when “ England expects every man to do his dufj/,” I have been negligent of mine, or m.inisters have done theirs. I am perfectly prepared for what may be said on this occasion by persons interested in imposing upon the public, by keeping them in the dark ; and in screening from public censure the errors of statesmen, in order to secure to them¬ selves the hire for which they let out their pens. Such per¬ sons will prcbably pretend to be shocked, that a man pro¬ fessing to wish well to his country, should run any risk of giving information to the enemy ■, meaning by such hypo¬ crisy, to deter men frcm giving information to the public, of a nature to enable that public truly to estimate the ser¬ vices, the characters, and the views of the paymasters of such writers. Upon the information I have to give, the public, in respect of the conduct of ministers from that day to this, will form its opinion, whether they have or have not studiously neglected, and as studiously evaded, the restoration of the de¬ cayed military branch of the constitution; and purposely preferred a worse to a better system of national defence. If that opinion should be in the affirmative, the motives to such preference will not be difficult to assign. Now the paper to which I have already alluded contains no information to the enemy ; for that only can be infor¬ mation'w\\\ch\\e ilocs not already know ; whereas, as will hereafter appear, all that I wish the English public to know, the enemy already knows too well. Mine is mere reason¬ ing upon that knowledge of which the enemy is in com¬ plete possession ; and on which moreover he is prepared to act. That reasoning at the time just alluded to had in it something of novelty to those whom it was first addressed, and gave a full conviction of danger to minds which till then had been wrapped in a fatal security: a like fatal secu¬ rity I see in a great part of the nation, which it is the object 35 of this book if possible to remove. If the general reasoning of the present woi k, shall but make as much impression on the nation, as my arguments on that particular occasion did on those to whom they were addressed, I shall have cause for being content. My general position is, —That the court system of our national defence, is, in a militanj view, disgracelul, con¬ temptible, and big with danger of actual conquest by France; and, in a political view, insidious to the constitution, and hostile to the liberties of our country ; so that, unless we demand and obtain a better system, should we, favour of the elements, escape being made the slaves of Frenchmen, we must become slaves under an English despotism. That the enemy knows our weakness perfectly well, I maintain to \>e. proved, by his continued preparation to in¬ vade us; for two years have now' elapsed since I observed— “ that, so long as the enemy shall continue his invasive “ preparations, so long there will be unquestionable evidence “ that our system of defence is materially short of constitu- “ tional perfection.” At the same time it was also ob¬ served, “ that the instant we shall be placed In a consiitu- “ tional attitude of defence, in the same instant Bonaparte “ must abandon every thought of invasion.” It is they, then, ’tis the ministry of the country *, w’ho, in obstinately refusing to restore that system which can alone protect us, who both cause and proclaim our weakness, and who give that information to the enemy, which induces him to attempt our destruction; and are those then who see, and offer proof of the fatal mischief, and who call on the nation to open their eyes to their danger, to be charged with indis- * This work was ready for the press before the ministry was chaiigcd, and there was no time, in the author’s opinion, for alterations ; nor did he think it proper to make any. F 2 ?.6 cretion, or ill designs? Between the Author of uEgis and ministers, let the country judge ! Without further preface then I now lay before the reader “ A Speech addressed to the Chairman of a Select Meet-, ing of Gentlemen*, held at the Cross Chamber.at on Saturday, the 22d of October 1803 ; for taking into con¬ sideration the defenceless state of the Port, the practicability of a descent by the enemy, and the consequences to be ap¬ prehended should such a descent be made.” Sir, Although originally bred in the naval service of my coun- t) y, since I settled near Boston I have thought little of naval matters ; but the circumstances in which we are now placed, have awakened me to more attention. Having in thirteen years of active service in the early part of my life acquired some little experience, I have oft listened with emotion to the confident opinions of mere landsmen, decisively pro¬ nounced on naval affairs. Thus I hear of the impractica¬ bility of an enemy getting to sea^ while wc have cruisers to block up their ports; I hear of the impracticability of land¬ ing on the open coast of this county beyond Wainjleet ; and I hear of the impracticability of an enemy entering our Bay. Sir, there is no impracticability in any of these things. Who stopped Humbert and his nine hundred men from sailing for Ireland'? Who stopped Hoche with a much larger force ? Who stopped the vast armament of Bonaparte, ■with which he conquered Egypt ; the reconquering of which * Between thirty and forty, consrstipg of Magistrates, Country Gen¬ tlemen, .Merchants, Officers of Volunteers, and Masters of Ships. And two Captains of rhe Royal Navy, commanding' the Fcncibles, had tlie goodness to attend. 37 cost US so many millions? Let us hear no more then of tlie certainty of blocking; up an enemy’s port*.—-Respecting the Texel 1 shall have something to say, by and by. Now, Sir, as to landing between Wainjieet and Grimsby; the fact is, that, with full half the winds ot heaven even in blowing weather, for a large army and its cannon it is one of the best landing places on the whole coast of Great Bri¬ tain, as, from the mode of supplying the inhabitants with their coals must be perfectly well known, if 1 forget not, it was on that coast the country was once invaded by a horde of ravaging Danes, whose ferocious warfare bore a strong similitude to that of the modern French. But now, Sir, we are told of another impracticability ; that of dragging cannon in winter through the marsh roads: but as invaders t would not fear an action of trespass be¬ fore the Qiiarter Sessions, perhaps tliey might fill in a few ditches, and march over the fanner’s pastures, which happen to be remarkably firm land. Touching the fanciful impracticability of entering our Bay, I see Gentlemen present who can satisfy you of the grossness of the error. Although a seaman, I never in my life was in the Bay in either ship or boat; but nevertheless, after considering MitcheVs C\rin, and asking vetv few ques¬ tions, I make no scruple to say, that, with that chart in mv hand, were I your enemy, I would, on tbe forfeiture of my * Within the last twelve months we have had again repeated proofs of the fallibility of naral blockades. At the present moment of writing, there are at sea two squadrons of the cnemj, one of which escaped long since from Rochfort, and the other lately (as supposed) from Rrest. December 27, 1805. t Although a tf'arwickshire gentleman, or a ^fattchruter mamifae- turer, may he ignorant of the dilBcuities or the facilities of a march o»er these parts, we must he credulous indeed to su))pose, that in the office of the French Minister of War these things are not as well known, as a mail coachman knows his road by night or by day. 38 head for miscarriage, undertake to bring Into Bostoji Deeps, either a single ship or a fleet of any magnitude ; with or without a fair wind; and with or without the buoys. If the vessels were Dutch, not drawing more than five, six, or at most seven leet, (and such are the vessels that would bring hither an army) they might with a leading wind enter be¬ tween the Nock and the main. I do not mean to say, that this is a coast free from danger ; but danger. Sir, is the familiar companion of sailors and soldiers. It once fell to my own lot, for five successive years, to navigate a coast equally dangerous, amidst an In¬ finity of sunken rocks, without either chart, soundings, pilot, or sailing marks, but such as I noted myself; nor aught else to trust to, but my own eyes and my own vigi¬ lance. I see nothing, therefore, in this coast, with the bene¬ fit of charts, pilots, and all other helps to navigation, to de¬ ter an enemy from making free with it. Unless you make your pikes and bayonets, your musquets and your cannon more dangerous than your Deeps, I would have you be prepared for all the ravages and brutalities of French in¬ vaders. Now, Sir, let us advert to our daily Informations concern¬ ing the preparations of the enemy. We hear of Lord Keith and our other commanders looking into the enemy’s ports, and thence forming ophiions of their ability for attacking us; and sometimes we hear of the report of an American ship-master, who has left one of their ports. For my own part. Sir, I think very little of this counting of gun-boats, or of these reports of ship-masters; for none of these persons can look further Into a mill-stone than you or I. It is our business, Sir, not merely to look into ports, but also into possibilities. We must look at the enemy’s means, not merely with the eye of the body, but likewise of the mind. Seeing that he is prosecuting the war for no other object, but the invasion of this country; and that the whole 39 powers of the fruitful and daring mind of Bonaparte, are exerted on this object; that he bears to this country the most rancorous and deadly hatred ; and is sanguine in his expectations of effecting its complete destruction ; we are to consider what he can do; and then to infer, it is the thing he unll do. Had we nothing, Sir, to fear, but the gun-boats that have been so often counted, I might perhaps indulge in a vein of ridicule similar to that which filled all our newspapers while the First Consul was preparing his Army of Reserve, whicli neither the English Minister, nor the Austrian Ge¬ neral could believe to exist in any formidable shape, until, like a dragon, it descended from the clouds that envelop the snowy summit of Mount St. Bernard, and struck a blow that astonished Europe. I wish we may not see another army issue from places we little dream of, and strike a blow at the heart of England that may hazard her existence. The country, Sir, from Dunkirk all the way through Elanders, and to the very not them extremity of Holland, is full of large canals, which are the commercial highways of that populous and busy part of the w’orld ; by which canals there is a free communication with all the islands of Zealand, as well as with the two Schelds, the Maes, the Rhine, the Ems, the Dollart, and the Zuyder Zee. In a country so much dependent upon canal navigation, the vessels thus employed are innumerable ; and of all burdens, from fifty, to one, two, three, and even four hundred tons. Can Boyiaparte then, want the means of transporting to this country even a hundred thousand men, and in vessels which, if he meant to adapt them to the navigation of Boston Deeps, could not be better constructed? I told you. Sir, that I had something more to say about the Texel. That channel we know is the only one into the Zuyder Zee practicable for ships of war, and therefore we watch it continually ; but, Sir, when we compare the mis- 40 chief that can be done us by the remnant of the Dutch navy, with what we might experience from a fleet of transports laden with a large annv, I think very little of blocking up the Texcl, while there are plenty of outlets by which an army can get to sea. From the lleldcr point to the Evis there are eijiht or ten of these outlets, the furthest of which to the N. E. is full twenty-five leagues from ihc Hdder: Then again between the southernmost point of the main land of HoUavd and Fort St. Paul in Flanders, there are six other capacious outlets, some of which arc so wide, as to have two or three navigable channels between the sands; the southernmost of these channels is twenty leagues from the IIcycle, and that again is twenty-one from the Felder; so that, independent of what may get to sea from Dunkirk and Ostend, here is a line of coast, of sixty-six leagues in extent, and having fifteen or sixteen outlets to sea, Irorn which tlie enemy may sail. An affected bustle may be made at the Fexel, as we sec made at Calais, Boulogne, &c. for attracting our attention, and fixing the situation of cruisers, while at points very distant, and perhaps many at the same time, the transports may rendezvous and push out to sea ; and where there are buoyed channels, they may even sail out in the darkest night, by the simple expedient of anchoring small vessels in the situations of the buoys, to carry lanterns, giving light towards the port, but none towards the sea. Having thus shown, that few things in war are more easy than to invade you from the ports of Flanders and Holland, let us next consider the various sorts of invasion which, ac¬ cording to circums^tances, may be expected ; and here, Sir, it is necessary to advert to the particular character of the war. Contemplating the present war as a contest, in which we are to fight for preserving the very foundations and sources of our national consequence, and indeed fof our existence 41 as a free state, I am strongly persuaJeJ that we must lay our account, in case the enemy should any where enter our country in force, with seeing all those foundations and sources of our prosperity, as far as it may be in the power of the invaders, absohifeli/ destroyed. Taking this view of the subject, and being decidedly ot opinion, that our North Sea squadron cannot insure us against very serious invasion, in my humble judgment, both the government, and the people themselves, without any calculation of chances on winds and weather, which of all things under heaven are the most unceitain, ought to provide for the dijence of the country, to the full extent of their means; and that no objects, the destruction of which may be the wish of the enemy> nor any portion of the coast, on which for such purposes they can land, ought to be in any degree unguarded. We ought, I say, to provide for the defeiyce of our coun¬ try, that is for effectually 'preventing its becoming the seat of war and desolation ; between which state of security, and the finally wresting it again, in a desert state, from the ferocious spoiler, who may have once been partly in pos¬ session, after a bloody and doubtful struggle, there is a dif¬ ference of incalculable magnitude. I particularly make this observation, in order that, as we proceed, vou may observe from what we ourselves see, and know, touching the defenceless state of the Inncnlnshire coast, that we are at present acting upon a system radically wrong ; inas¬ much as it lays the country completely open to the palpable hazard of becoming the seat of war, and to all the dread¬ ful calamities and horrors of such a situation. How those who are answerable for conducting the defence of the country can reconcile to themselves such a system, 1 know not, but I would not have the consciousness of having adopted such a system, for all that this world can confer upon me *. But, * The reader will observe, that these reuiarLs apply to the state of VOL. U. G 42 as far as we are compelled to act upon the piesent system, let us, in God’s name, bad as it it, act upon it with vigour and energy, improving upon it ourselves if we can, where- ever we find ourselves at liberty so to do, by doing more and better than the system requires. As the subject we have under consideration is, I may venture to pronounce, far more weighty and important, than any you were ever before called upon to discuss, I trust it will not be expected of me, to dispatch what 1 have to lay before you in three words, nor without viewing our danger indifferent aspects; for in truth I am no com¬ poser of epigrams ; neither do I believe, that the saving of towns, counties, or kingdoms from calamity, will in general be so well promoted by bolting out a lew short naked propositions, as when the necessary propositions are somewhat clothed with the arguments of grave deliberation. With your permission, then, in contemplating the pro¬ bability of an invasion on the coast of Lincolnshire, I shall consider the town of Boston* * as a primary object of such invasion; and shall likewise consider such an invasion under four different points of view, accordingly as we may imagine the enemy to act in this quarter upon a plan more or less extended. First, I shall suppose an attempt at coining upon the towm by surprise w ith a handful of men, perhaps a thou- the county more than two years ago, during which it is to he presumed, that vigilant and energetic ministers have effected a total change. On the present state of the coast I say nothing. But thinking it a safe rule of judgment to believe that Bonaparte has good intelligence, our iVar~ ti'ickshire gentlemen and Manchester manufacturers, may, as 1 should con¬ ceive, form very rational conclusions of invasions being practicable or im¬ practicable, by observing whether the plan of invasion be abandoned or not by the enemy. * I presume I am not giving- information to the enemy by a publica¬ tion which announces that two years ago there were such towns as Boston and Lyrm. 43 sand; secondly, making a joint attack, with four or jvvc thousaiid., upon Boston and Lynn, and some other neigh¬ bouring places; thirdly, seizing upon Boston, as a military post, with a considerable army, destined to effect much more extensive mischief than could be executed even in the county of Lincoln ; and fourthly, seizing and making a military depot of Boston, when invading the country with an army of great strength that should be intended to act its part in the work of subjugation. First, then, the enemy, stung in particular with resent¬ ment for our recent bombardments, and firings of the towns of Calais, Boulogne, Granville, &c. and keeping also in mind our destroying the grand sluice at Ostend, could he by a coup de main take at one place, and by one stroke, a dou¬ ble revenge, by giving to the flames the shipping and town of Boston, and at the same time demolishing all the sea sluices, would he not, think you, make it a matter of the higest exultation ? In the present wretched state of our defences, would such an enterprise require more than one thousand men * f When we had an army of twenty thousand men in Lreland-> Humbert landed there with only nine hundred men ; and after losing eight days, waiting for the Irish to join him, he still marched more than half way to Dublin, and was, as I think, a full fortnight or more in the country before he was brought to a surrender. And be it remembered that Humbert's army was conveyed to Lreland in three ships only. Considering, therefore, that almost all the effective force of the kingdom is drawn round the metropolis, Ports¬ mouth, and Plymouth, and how much afraid the govern- * “ No, bj G—, nor three hundred," was the exclamation of an officer present, whose opinion the company' knew to be entitled to respect. G 2 44 merit would be of weakening those points of defence, we must conceive that, besides the mischief already spoken of, the enemy would have ample time, before he could be overpowered, to cut the sea banks in this neighbourhood, and drown a great proportion of the country ; for you know that the sea at high tide is of a higher level than the surface of a great part of the soil. Were we to experience these calamities, we could have no consolation; for they could be imputed to nothing but the most disgraceful negligence. Contemplate, Sir, as seen in your mind’s eye, all the levels of the country so lately waving with their golden harvests, once more a salt sea ; your magnificent church a frightful ruin ; your town and its w'ealth a heap of ashes ; and the inexpressible misery of its late inhabitants, now squandered God knows where, many of them in beggary and ruin ; and all this effected by a thousand men ,• and I am sure you will think it high time that the town, the neighbourhood, and the government arouzed from their lethargy ; and instantly took the neces- cessary measures for averting such an evil ! Secondly, I will suppose the enemy to arrive in our bay with an army of four or Jive thousand men and some ar¬ tillery. Dividing his force pretty equally, he makes his descents as near as possible to the towns of Boston and I,j/nn ; having previously landed strong foraging parties at a greater distance ; keeps a small force in each, and pushes forward by forced marches to Yaxley, leaving troops in possession, as he advances, of Spalding, Deeping., fVis~ beck, and Peterborough *. I know not the farce kept for guarding Yaxley ; nor have sufficient information for judg¬ ing what might be all the effect of such a movement on the part of an enemy. If our troops at tliat place should The enemy, I presume, know there were such places two years as'o. 45 find it necessary to evacute their post, and march their pri¬ soners further into the interior, the enemy would of course burn the barracks, when it is probable they would re¬ turn ; but whether they would leave all the towns I have mentioned in flames, or not, I leave to be judged of, according to your ideas of their object in making such a descent. You are to consider that in all descents, where they could not entertain any great expectation of a return, but must lay their account with a final surrender as prisoners of war, their Corsican master would take care to have ample payment, in mischief to England, for the number of men he was to sacrifice ; and, whether they should he merely captured, or else slain, would make no other difference in his mind, than that he would expose them to that fate, by which he could secure to himself the greatest mischief to this country/. On such an invasion, therefore, as 1 am now considering, we must not be sur¬ prised if Spalding, Deeping, IVisbech, and Peterborough, as places of trade, with all the works of navigation, and drainage, and embankment in their immediate vicinity, should be totally destroyed ; and that Boston and Lynn should lastly share the same fate. It such an attack should only be one of many similar movements at the same period, and the government should be put under serious alarm at the same time for the capital, no aid either naval or military might be sent into these parts in time; and the enemy in that case might re-embark, and direct his course for some other of our defenceless ports and places to the northward to extend his ravages ; enjoying, as he went, the thought of having levelled to the dust so many proud English towns, and of having defeated the labours of many ages, by giving buck to the devouring jaws ef the sea, a country won from it by hutnan industry; •• Dcftnceles* years ajo. 46 and destroying all the principal works of drainage and na¬ vigation extend. ng over six cr seven hundred square mile* of fertile land. As a motive with me, for endeavouring to avert such ca¬ lamities, it suffices, that 1 see a practicability of their being brought upon us : I enter not into any pernicious calcula¬ tions about winds and weather, nor flatter myself that, be¬ cause difficulty and danger muse attend the enterprise, there- fi;re it will not be attempted. Has Bonaparte usurped the throne of France^ and brought the continent of Europe x.o his foot, without encountering difficulty and danger } And what are the difficulties, what are the dangers, that will deter him, ' from attempting to gratify the favourite wish of his soul, that of annihilating the power of England ! But, let me come to my third supposition; in which Boston might not be doomed to immediate destruction ; but might be destined to become, for a longer or a shorter pe¬ riod, according to the success of the war, a military station to a French army. On this occasion again, I shall sup¬ pose a combined attack on both Boston and Lynn, as well as on Yaxley, but with a greater force than under the former supposition. I shall likewise suppose all the towns before-named, except Spalding, to experience the same fate as before imagined ■, but that the troops which perform these services, immediately fall back upon Boston; whei e they find their countrymen fortifying the town; having, how¬ ever, pushed forwards considerable corps to Donnington, Tattersall, and other points, leaving a corps also at Spald- z?ig, as an outpost *. * The reaeler must know that I cannot instruct French generals how to take their positions, or to subdue a country. But for rousing the good people of England from their fatal lethargy, it seems necessary to present pictures of warfare whieh would be likely to take place after ef¬ fecting a landing on their shores. General abstract reasonings on mi¬ litary science, can have little effect in comparison of coming home to plain men’s apprehensions and feelings. / 47 On the supposition I am now taking, I am supposing the Army of Boston^ (as perhaps the Corsican would call itj intended to make a serious Impression on the kingdom, at the same time that It made a powerful diversion in favour of the French Army of London, favoured by a similar diver¬ sion by anotlier invasion made in the ~a.'t’st. In this case again, the importance of saving the capital and our great naval arsenals might expose the midland and noriliern counties to a severe conflict with the veteran troops of the enemy; in which there might be little hope of subduing this northern enemy before decisive victories had been obtained over those of the xi'est and the south. Meanwhile I will supjjose a short time spent by a part of the I'rench armv in strengthening Boston as a post; from which it might (in this low country) be dilEcult to dislodge it during the winter months. By casting an eye on the map of Boston, and of the lands a mile round, or less, we see at once the facility of en¬ circling it with lines of some strength. Except for a short distance on each side of the Witham at the Grand Sluice, the towm is already completely encompassed with drains of some magnitude. A cut from the Witham Bank to the Maud Foster on the north side; and another cut from the Witham Bank again, to the extremity of the North Forty Foot Drain on the south side, will enclose the w'hole town ; taking in also considerable pastures for sheep, to be fed out of the granaries of the merchants. Along the inside of the encircling drains, a substantial parapet might soon be thrown up; -wxth redouts, or perhaps, more properly speaking, with simple ravelins, at convenient distances on the outsides of the drains, and then cutting ditches around those exterior works, to communicate with the drain at each extremity of the said ditches, and laying foot bridges into the said ravelins. At the four bridges by which you now' approach the town from the cast, the veest, the south.^ and the north,, strong 4 S Lcte de ponts, encompassed likewise with ditches, might also be soon constructed; the ditches of these particular works being made passable by draw-bridges for carriages, at Maud Foster (rout, and at the points of contact with the JVitham and the South Forty Foot Banks, suitable works being far¬ ther constructed; and the whole palisadoed, tlie post would be fortified, and made of some strength, for it is now sup¬ posed the enemy brings with him a powerful artillery. 63'- the time the place may be thus (if not prevented) in posses¬ sion of an enemy, it is presumed the bed of the haven be¬ tween the Black Sluice and Maud Foster Gout, wdll no longer be, as it is in some parts at present, passable on dry sand, but that there wdll at low tide be water enough to answer as a ditch. Engineers who have armies and the population of a country to execute their plans wmuld not be long in constructing such works as have been mentioned. Their next attention might be directed to the construction of re¬ doubts, in a chain around these lines for adding to the strength of the place*. Such works being in a short time considerably advanced, we paay suppose a moderate garrison to be left in the town, and the rest of the army to march for Newark and thence to Nottingham. If they should prosecute the war under strict orders to make desolation of every thing appertaining to manufactures, trade, and navigation, here they would again begin these mischiefs ; jjburning all mills, manufac¬ tories, and their produce; breaking up all navigation locks and other works ; and destroying all the implements of ma¬ nufacture they could lay their hands on ; and, but too probablv, burning the towns themselves; thus crushing at once the eggs of our opulence and destroying the nests. Knowing that the ruin of trade is the making of armies, ■» To call such reasoning as this, suggested by a mere sight of the map, informing the enemy, would be truly ridiculous. 49 they would now play ofF their eloquent proclamations against the English government, and deal out thcimost libe¬ ral promises to ail such artizans as should join the French standard. They would be assured of admission to a com¬ plete fraternity with the native French, and in the event of a conquest, of a full share of the confiscated estates of the nobility and gentry of England. Nor would they fail to circulate similar promises to the English army ; and, if the hope of boundless plunder could seduce them from their duty, it would be held out to them in terms the most flat¬ tering^. I shall not by any means take for granted, any thing to the disadvantage, either of our manufacturing artizans, or of our soldiery; but the former, by the ruin of trade, would be reduced to beggary, and the latter have been tiained in a school not very favourable to morality. I would wish to keep all such persons out of temptation; particularly the soldiers of a standing army; for when we consider the ma¬ terials of which mercenary armies are composed, no sober- minded man at all acquainted with the history and charac¬ ter of such armies, but must shudder at the thought of his country depending upon the virtue of such a class of men, when it might be in their power to turn the balance, either for preservation or ruin, for liberty or slavery; and when their virtue must stand indirect opposition to their immediate interest. Recollecting what must be fresh in every man’s mind, of the symptoms which occasioned the douceur of double pay, we could not be surprised if the dazzling hope of golden re- * Ought he who uses such reasoning as the foregoing, in order to bring about a constitutional state of things, which must totally remove all possibility of such dangers; or those ministers who, by shutting their ears, and persisting in an unconstitutional system, expose their country to every possible calamity war can bring upon it; the persona who are to be blamed I VOL It. H 50 wards, and of becoming, jointly with other soldiers of for¬ tune, tb« lords of all the lands c^.id wealth of England^ should suddenly fill the minds of hirelings serving for a few pence a day, with a criminal ambition too strong to be re¬ sisted. Pains, it is true, on the part of government, have not been spared, to fortify the virtue of such persons against the se¬ ductions of French eloquence: but these very pains are a proof, that my anxiety on the point in question is not in the opinion of that government unfounded; but who can prove to us, that the reasonings and the eloquence which on this occasion have been exerted, and which have been circulated beyond all example, have produced the desired effect ? But let us return to the Imagined progress of the invad¬ ing army which we left at Nottingham. From thence it may be supposed to steer its course for Sheffield, and thence into the heart of the manfacturing part of Yorkshire. Ex¬ aggerated accounts of its strength and its deeds would fly before it; and if it were known that other armies had at the same time landed in the south and the west, the French in the north would not fail to fill the country with reports of their success, and with assurances that the fate of England was on the point of being decided, by a final conquest. It is not to be supposed that an enemy could have ad¬ vanced so far into the country without meeting some oppo¬ sition, and being engaged in some partial actions; but, un¬ der the clrsumstances of our military preparations, it is not to be imagined, that, as yet, it would have been thought prudent to have hazarded any decisive battle between such veteran troops, and our Inexperienced volunteers and raw i levies. This military superiority, and the advancing pro¬ gress of the enemy, added to all other causes, might have great effects on the minds of the ignorant and unreflecting ; and if they saw such towns as Wakefield, Leeds, and Hah- 51 jax in flames, and the enemy still pushing on and threatening the whole country with destruction, how far a ruined po¬ pulace, driven to despair of ever seeing their country In a state for affording them the bread of sober industry might be induced to join the invaders, as supposing them the stronger party, and the destined masters of England, no man can divine. I draw these pictures of events within the compass of possibility, to show the dreadful effects which may result from the accessibility of our coast, and the comparatively unarmed state of our population. I'o prevent the possibi¬ lity of such events, must be equally the duty of the govern¬ ed, and of those who govern ; and I feel it to be a duty we owe our country, respectfully, but freely, to deliver our sen¬ timents on the subject, to those who have it in their power to improve our situation. But, Sir, I must plainly tell you, that, although our own prudence, with some small aid from government, may guard the town of Boston, from being sur¬ prised, pillaged, and set on fire by the 'coup de main of a small body of troops; yet that you can have no security whatever given you against the attacks of any considerable army, unless the government siiall depart from its calculat¬ ing system of defence, and shall, before It be too late, arm and organize a much larger proportion of the population of the kingdom, besides furnishing you on this coast with a considerable naval force. I have yet. Sir, one other supposition to state to you; which differs from the last only in extent ; and although some may imagine that I have already supposed much more than can really happen, I think it right to apprize you of something beyond that, which, for aught that any one can prove to the contrary, may possibly take place. Under my last supposition, I supposed only such an army to Invade us, as might be able to leave a corps in possession of Boston, as a military post, fortified by tolerable lines; H 2 52 but, for aught that I can see against the supposition, we may he visited by a French army capable of leaving here a much larger force than I before thought of ; and which, after con¬ structing such lines as before spoken of, might, within tlrem again, throw up a regular fortiiication of great strength, with a view of holding the place during the war ; unless they preferred razing it to the ground, and taking the field with the undiminished force of their whole army, which might be capable, under able generals, of disputing the vic¬ tory with any force that could be sent against it ; and of acting an important part in the attempt towards a reduction of the kingdom. It is only. Sir, by our becoming an armed nation, in the true sense of the word, that w'e can be free from such a danger; and if. Sir, the gentlemen present would wish to prevent the dreadful calamity of our country being under such circum¬ stances the seat of war, and Boston either a French fortress or a heap of ashes, they will be ready to join in proper re¬ commendations to government, of the only system that can afford security. Of the four several suppositions respecting an invasion in this quarter which I have taken, probability seems much more in favour of the last than of any one of the others; because it most accords with the object and the genius of Bonaparte-, and if he were to pray to Heaven for a com¬ modious shore to land upon with a hundred thousand men, I think he would scarcely solicit one more commodious than that which lies along your deeps from Wainjieet to Fries- ton. When I see at his command a population of forty mil¬ lions of people, out of whom he can form armies at his pleasure, — when I see his means of collecting upon his canals transports in any number,—when I see his fifteen or sixteen outlets to sea, from any of which he can sail in the darkest nights,—when I see such a harbour as Boston 53 Deeps directly opposite his ports open to receive him,—- when I see a shore just such as he could wish to land on,—and nothing to oppose him but a few companies of infantry with¬ out firelocks, and a troop or two of horse without sabres*, and this when England., with a short interval only, has been at war with France ten years and a half, —-I al¬ most fancy I see the indignant genius of mv country doom¬ ing it to expiate, by its blood and a long course of calamity, the folly and the criminality of not respecting a constitution, a vital part of which is a military system of national de¬ fence, the most perfect and infallible that human genius ever devised. Obsolete as, in the shallow opinions of some, the institU' tion to which I allude is become, that it was not “ restored to full vigour and energy,” was, more than twenty years ago, the pathetic lamentation of one, who, by his genius, his learning, his wisdom, and his virtue, shed a lustre on the age in which he lived, and on the nation that gave him birth : 1 mean the late Sir William Jones. If I shall be told that, in the General Defence Act, we have in effect xh&posse comitalus, I shall reply, that it is a miserable shadow' of a managed original; but y'et, were it but carried into full and energetic execution, we might for the present be safe ; wherefore, when I have heard the sentiments of other gentlemen, I intend to propose somethi ^ the subject. Whether in the foregoing Speech I magnified the danger to be apprehended, or have now given any information to the enemy not before in his possession, may be seen by a publication purporting to be dated America, May 1804, and to come from the pen of Thomas Paine ; which, fi om the Such, in October 1803, was the state of preparation. 34 iiittnial evidence of it 1 take to be his*. He tells us that “ the union of Belgium to France makes a new order of things—that “ the plan of a descent upon England by “ gun-boats, began after the first peace with Austria, and “ the acquisition of Belgium by France. Before that ac- “ quisition France had no territory on the north sea, and it “ is there the descent will he carried on.” “ The English coast on the north sea, including the “ counties of Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, and Lincolnshife f, “ is as level as a bowling-green, and approachable in every “ part for more than two hundred miles. The shore is a “ clean firm sand, where a flat-bottomed boat may row dry “ aground. The country people use it as a race-ground “ and for other sports when the tide is out. At is the weak “ and defenceless part of England, and it is impossible to “ make it otherwise.”—‘ This, Thomas, is not true; but I believe that you as little desire to see it properly defended, or the people to be truly informed, as their own minister himself.’ He goes on to say, “ The Belgic coast, and that of HoU “ land, which joins it, is directly opposite this defenceless “ part, and open a new passage for invasion. The Dutch “ fishermen know this coast better than the English them- “ selves, except those who live upon it J ; and the Dutch “ smugglers knoxo every creek and corner in it. * This work, part of which is sufficiently insidious, I understand to he suppressed, in consequence of an Information filed by the Attorney General ; who is also said to have suspended the proceedipgs he had commenced against the publisher. It was sent to me several months ago, with what intention I know not. + Paine was born in Norfolk, and was afterwards an Exciseman at ./tiford, in Lincolnshire, near the coast. J The author, while resident near that coast found it, prior to October 1803, the prevalent opinion among the gentlemen even of the immediate <55 “ The original plan, formed in the time of the Directory, “ (but now much more extensive) was to build “ oyie tJiousand boats, each sixty feet long, to draw about “ two feet water, to carry a twenty-four or thirty-six “ pounder in the head, and a field-piece in the stern, to be “ run out as soon as they touched the ground. Each boat “ was to carry a hundred men, making in the whole one “ hundred thousand, and to row with 20 or 25 oars on a “ side. Bonaparte was appointed to the command, and by “ an agreement between him and me, I was to accompany “ him.'" “ As the expedition could choose its time of setting off, either after a storm, w'hen the English fleet would be “ blown ofF, or in a calm, or in a fog; and as thirty-six “ hours rowing * * would be able to carry it over, the proba- “ bility is, it would arrive, and when arrived, no ship of the “ line, or large frigate, could approach it, on account of the “ shoalness of the coast f : and besides this, the boats would “ form a floating battery, close in with the shore, of a thou- “ sayid pieces oj heavy artillery, and the attempts against “ the gun-boats at Boulogne shows the insufficiency of ships “ in such situations. About two hundred and fifty gun- “ boats were built, when the expedition was abandoned for ceiglibourhood, that, such were the dangers of the coast, the encmj' would not think of it for the purposes of invasion. * About thirty-six hours sailing; ))ut to row ail the way would re¬ quire much more. Allhou“:h sucli gun-boats may be built in Holland and Flanders, 1 suspect that they would be added to these in narrower parts of the chaiuie), and large transports issue from the ports of tliose countries. t This circumstance indeed favours the supposition of an attempt by boats, which if they could once pass our cruisers on their coast under these circumstances, or by favour of a dark nightt might very well get ®ver with their oars; but if when out they should be favoured by an air too light for our cruisers to pursue with etlect,- tue enemy might dwivc some assistance from their sails. 56 “ that of Egypt, to which the preparations had served as a “ feint.” “ The preparations for the invasion have already demon- “ strated to France what England ought never have suf- “ fered her to know, which is, that she can hold the Eng- “ lish government in terror, and the w'hole country in “ alarm, whenever she pleases, and as long as she pleases, “ and that without employing a single ship of the line, and “ more effectually than if she had a hundred sail. The “ boasted navy of England is out-done by gun-boats ! It is “ a revoluuon in naval tactics; but we live in an age of re- “ volutions.” What a satire is here on the faction behind the throne, and their ministers, for not restoring the mili- tary branch of the constitution; and putting an end to this expensive terror! These quotations will show that my reasonings in Octo¬ ber 1803, in consequence of the whole of the Low Countries having become French, were not without such foundations as ought to impress upon the mind of every E?iglishmafi, how essential it is to our existence as a state, that our powers of defence shall be commensurate to our danger ; to which end nothing is wanting, no contrivance of genius, no invention, nothing which plain sense cannot point out, and common honesty execute ; nothing indeed but the perform¬ ance of an obvious duty on the part of parliament and mi¬ nisters, the wilful neglect of which, as it may involve the overthrow of the constitution and the utter ruin of our coun¬ try, I need not characterize. The danger to be apprehend¬ ed by this country from the hostility of Belgium in potent hands, was, so early as the reign of Henry VII. foreseen by the Lord Chancellor Morton, who deprecates “ the increase- “ ment of the greatness of France, by the addition of such “ a country, which stretches its boughs into our seas.” He is quoted by the great Lord Bacon; and about forty years ago Lord Lyttelton^ after commenting on the passage, adds. 57 “ The present state of the Dutch and the Austrian Nether- “ lands is not such as will absolutely remove that fear from “ any thinking man*." And %\x William Tem/)/*? draws for this nation the most melancholy presages, should those countries, with which he was so well acquainted, ever fall under the dominion of France. In a letter to his brother, Sir John Temple, dated Brussels, October 10, N. S. 1667, he says, “ If French “ shall carry Flanders, as they very well may in another “ campaign, by the weakness and disorders in the govern- “ ment here, the Dutch are sensible that they must fall to “ be a maritime province to France, upon the best terms “ they can; and what a condition England will be left in “ by such an accession of maritime forces, as w'ell as pro- “ vinces, to such a power as France is already, is but too “ easy, and too melancholy a reflection f-” And most assuredly this event, which has in our day taken place, while a man born for empire and for revolutions has also risen to the French throne, will put the seal of extinction on the existence of our state, unless the government of England shall wholly abandon, as speedily as possible, those danger¬ ous principles of national defence which belong only to de¬ spotic states, and by which, as we now with deep anxiety witness, not even such states can be saved in the day of trial. Do we not remember the Hanoverian proclamation on the eve of the French irruption, for the population to rise in arms ? And what did it avail ? Do we not remember the proclamation of the Emperor of Germany to his Belgic subjects, on the eve of a similar irruption from France ? But what effect did it produce ? Have we not again recently heard of attempts at a levee en masse in Hungary ? But * Life of Hen. II. r. 3, p. II, published in 1767. + lb. II. 43. VOL. II. I 58 ' with what better success ? Had any of these nations possess¬ ed real political liberty, must not the French have extermi¬ nated, to have conquered, them ? But, alas ! the subjects of an arbitrary monarch have not a country, in the political, the majestic sense of that word; and no such monarch, until inspired with the goddike idea of imparling to his people political liberty, can give them a regular, organized, pre¬ pared system equivalent to the County Power of England, (existing to this day as an essential part of the constitution and common law of the land, althoug'i traitorously neglect¬ ed by those whose duty it has been to keep it in constant vigour and exercise) by which, in time of need, he can de¬ pend on having at his call a levee tn masse. Little does it import an Hungarian or a Bohemian peasant of what sove¬ reign, or of what subordinate lord, he is the slaye. In the day of extremity, it is not the bodies of reluctant slaves, but the minds, the hearts, the souls of freemen that form the impregnable rampart of a throne. Nor is this all. In arbi¬ trary and in free states respectively, tire whole system of defence is essentially different; the organization, and machi- nary, is correspondent to the principle of the government. One is radically weak : the other inherently strong. Had Austria, Moravia, Bohemia, Hungary, and the Venetian states, been free nations under one sovereign, with a popu¬ lation furnishing many millions of valiant men to draw the sword, under such an organisation as the English mi¬ litia under Alfred, explained in my first volume, those countries w’ould have been at this moment in peace and security ? Napoleon, who by mere dint of superior science, talent, and experience, has prevailed against mere mercenary armies, where there has been no material disparity of num¬ bers on either side, would not have been quite so rash, as to have led his anyiy of mercenary soldiers into the interior of a country, where in ten days time they must inevitably have laid down their arms to their encircling enemy, or have been 59 given to slaughter. It is of a piece with the stupid policy of despotism to imagine, that a levee en masse, or an armed, orderly, and effective rising of the population of a country for defence against armies of veterans, led on by able^ gene-, rals, can take place in an enslaved country at the word of command in a moment of danger. It can only be the ef¬ fect of system interwoven into the general law of the nation, of established freedom, of constant arms-bearing, and habi¬ tual training. And the framers of our .Acts for General Defence must permit me to’ tell them, that a tempoiary paper system, without all the rest, will in the hour of “ ac- “ tual invasion, or on the appearance of the enemy in force “ upon the coast be as little availing as a Hanoverian, Belgic, or Hungarian proclamation. When I call on our government to abandon erroneous principles of defence, it is with my eye full upon their Acts for General Defence f. I would to God I could forget them ! For my country’s sake, for my country’s honour, I wish them obliterated from the statute book, to make way for a law more congenial with the constitution; that is, a statute simply declaratory of that system of defence which has in fact been law for more than a thousand years, and for giving that system lite and effect. While Napoleon is occupied.in new-modelling continental despotisms, stripping emperors, and creating kings, happy would it be for Eng¬ land would sire employ the leisure afforded her, in fortifying Iier own freedom, by restoring the military branch of her own constitution On the subject of these statutes for General Defence, I * 43 Geo. III. c. 96, S t 43 Geo. 111. c. 55. 96. 1'20. I Great events succeed so rapidly, that unless we hiid learned to print as fast as we write, we cannot keep pace with them. By the time this volume can be published, Napoleon may be executing- new designs. I 2 60 have already made known to the public some of my thoughts both in my first volume, (p. 6 and 93) and in the present j and enough to show their unconstitutional nature, and ill tendency : to 'ministers I submitted in manuscript further objections; and although I could not but judge of their mo¬ tives by their actions, yet, hoping the general reasoning of my book, grounded on the clearest principles of the consti¬ tution, might prevail with them to act as became statesmen in a free country, I thought it right, until their conduct should prove the contrary, to attribute the defects 1 saw in their statutes to a want of leisure ; and even to a prudent care not to reform our military system with too hasty a hand*: but two full years of silence, and of neglect to propose any amendment of their plan, having convinced me that my original opinion was but too w'ell founded, I now think it my duty, not only to make public what in Decem¬ ber 1803 I sent them privately in manuscript, but to offer further remarks. The manuscript was as follows; “ Private Supplement to the .rEgis, submitted to the con¬ sideration of his Majesty’s Ministers, by the author f.” The writer’s publication sufficiently explaining what he conceives to be the true system of defence for England, as actually prescribed by her constitution, and as essential to her freedom, he has, on the present occasion, only to offer such thoughts on the system now acting upon, as, from respect to his majesty’s ministers, and other considerations of pro¬ priety, he chose not to communicate through the medium of the -press * First Vol. Pref. xviii. t Sent, together with a printed copy of the j^giSy to six cabinet ministers, one each. if A silence of fall two years cannot have betrayed any rude impati¬ ence on the part of the author; nor any particular eagerness to find fault; especially when it is considered that the substance of the system given in England’s iEgis was published near seven years ago. 61 Meaning neither to flatter nor to offend, but simply to express his thoughts on a subject too momentous for either hollow compliment or frivolous criticism, he hopes what he has to say will meet with a candid hearing; and, if it shall appear that a plan adopted while those who framed it were burdened with the toil and care of government, at a crisis of unparalleled difficulty, shall have material imperfections, he trusts that its authors will be ready to amend it, on those imperfections being pointed out. These observations being supplementary to what he has said in his book, he thinks it may contribute to perspicuity if he keep in his eye the same arrangement of his matter, as he did in the jILgis, while commenting upon the Acts of Parliament for arming the English Population. First, then, the writer imagines, that, in the circumstance of the present system of defence having been made tempo¬ rary only, he sees the effect of a mere temporary caution ; not intended to be persevered in. It might, by ministers, have been thought that to have enforced all at once a ge¬ neral and permanent arms-bearing, together with the disci¬ pline properly attending it, how constitutional soever such a measure might be, would have savoured of a severity that might not have been acceptable to a people, whose habits had not been in unison with such a regimen ; and on this account perhaps it was judged best, not to give permanency to the system, until experience had shown how easy must be the duty of each individual citizen when the great mass should be armed; especially in time of peace; as well as to defer it until means had been taken to impress upon the Seeing no more prospect under this second administration of Mr. Pill than before of a system of defence such as can be relied on, and seeing at the same time (notwithstanding our late victories on the ocean) our danger from invasion every year increasing more and more, were he longer to suppress what, he thinks, would be to desert what he esteems his duf , and to betray a criminal indifference to the fate of his country. 62 public mind, the many benefits resulting from a constitu¬ tional arming. He hopes that such was at the time the reasoning of his majesty’s ministers; and he believes that all difficulties, in the way of completely restoring the military branch of the constitution, are already removed. Contemplating the peculiar domestic situation of our country, while tlie human mind throughout Europe is in a state of commotion; contemplating also that country, as borne down with the weight of its debt and taxes, and as assailed by the gigantic military despotism of France, the writer feels that no ordinary vigour is required in our states¬ men ; but, still more, that all the energies of our constitu¬ tion ought to be reinvigorated, cherished, and wrought up to their highest capabilities. He cannot imagine that minis¬ ters, at such a crisis, can hope to conduct the government with success, without rising above the crooked wisdom of ordinary courtiers ; or without totally discarding, as the bane of their country, the deadly policij of “ the three last ceti- turies*,” by which the military branch of our constitution has been gradually, but uniformly undermined, with a view’’ of establishing in its place, the system of governing by a standing army. Should the present very limited arms-bearing of the civil state melt away again at the first return of peace, as it in¬ evitably must if not perpetuated by a legislative act, what would in that case be our situation ?—Identified, as in effect what we now call a militia is, with the regular army, should we not be in the condition described by Aristotle, who says that “ those who command the arms in a country are mas- * Fee a Discourse on the Establishment of a National and Constitu¬ tional f orce in England, by Lord Hawlcesbury, now Earl of Liverpool, first published in 1737; and republished, but wt by his Lordship, in il^A- Page 05. ' 63 ters of the state, and can make what revolutions they “ please?” And should we not have practical evidence of the truth of Mr. Ai thur Young's observation, that “ where “ government only is armed,'there despotism is established.” To imagine that, to place England at the termination of the war in the same state of subjugation to the sword of de¬ spotic power, which in France we contemplate with so much disgust and horror, was, by the framers of the Acts for General Defence, premeditated and intended, would be ungenerously to impute to them an impiety towards their country, which words are too weak to express. No: the writer trusts they are free from the Corsican taint ; that tlie political conduct of a Bonaparte towards his country, will not "be chosen for their model; and, consequently, that they will take the proper steps for averting from England, that consummation of national evil, a military government. Secondly; in addition to what is said in the jEgis, on the subject of Volunteer Services, tire writer cannot but think that substituting this novelty in place of the constitutional practice of former times, is undignified, and savours too much of the tricking character of modern recruiting. In the original, from which this feature was copied, it is easy to detect an Insidious design, under this affectation of popu¬ larity*. But when this invitation of volunteer services is accompanied with a threat of compulsion, surely the majesty of the constitution, which knows no such policy, and needs no such arts, is not duly respected ! Thirdly ; the idea of utility, in the introduction of a con¬ dition, that Volunteers should be liable to march to any part of the kingdom, could only arise out of the radical imper¬ fections of the system; as it is presumed must appear from * The original here referred to was the system of the Volunteer Yeo- pianry of Mr. Pill .nnd Mr. Dtvidaa (now Lord Melville). 64 a perusal of the j'Fgis. The introduction 6f such a condi¬ tion is a broad acknowledgement, that, under the adopted system of defence, our country is still exposed to the dread¬ ful calamity, of being made the'seat of a bloody and doubtful war. The system of the Constitution makes SUCH AN EVENT IMPOSSIBLE. —The Writer, therefore, be.seeches those w'hom he has now the honour to address, duly to reflect on an alternative, on which may hang not only the comforts, the property and lives of thousands, and tens of thousands, but the very destiny of the state. In arming according to the constitution, no such condition is necessary. Every man would see that, unless a miracle took place, he never could be called upon for more than to march to the neai est coast to defend his own immediate fire¬ side, to which, if he survived, he must speedily return. The present condition, from its owm nature must be, and the Wl iter knows it is, contemplated with great dissatisfaction, by persons of the greatest loyalty and patriotism. The extreme personal inconvenience with which the condition is big, and the distress, and even ruin, it might produce to very many- virtuous volunteers, are so obvious they need not to be described. Fourthly; the Writer confesses that he cannot even name one necessarA consequence of the present system of arming —ihat of volunteers being, in a very large proportion, at the expiration of the war, again disarmed, without the deep¬ est emotion. He blushes for those Englishmen who can endure the thought. As soon as the hateful tyranny of the curfew had abated, and while yet the Norman notions of government ran high, every Englishman as observed in the JEgis was armed-, every Englishman’s arms were his own, whether he were, or were not, a feudal tenant; his arms were kept in his own house; “ two times a year,” jto the •property and the posses- 65 sio7i he was siDorn ; riay, when all other goods and moveables were seizable for a debt, his military “ horse and harness” were sacred even from the touch of the Sheriff*. Under the Tudors, again, the lowest servant, if he re¬ ceived wages, was to find arms, or his master was to provide them, and to abate his wages for the payment.—Is it then, under a prince of the house of Brunswick, and when the nation is struggling for its political existence, that an English People, for the first time since the curfew, are to be armed with the same jealousy as if they were Jamaica Negroes +? If his majesty’s ministers have in their veins one drop of English blood, they will be impatient to wipe from the once- manly face of England so foul a stain! Meaning to save the state by the native courage of its people, it will be their study not to debase, but to exalt the public mind, and to cause the nation to glory in its freedom, while it draws the sword in its defence. Claiming to be conversant with the science of just dominion, to be familiar with the generous maxims of the English Constitution, to feel (if it may be So expressed) the magnanimity and the intrinsic wisdom, of a government of all hy all ; which at once secures authority to the Prince and freedom to the People ; they will not de¬ grade themselves to a level with the agents of despotic power, who know not how to reconcile the rights and Interests of the throne and the cottage, nor how to support the authority of the sovereign, without reducing the subject to a slave. The Writer, equally aware of the fears, of the ignorance, of the prejudice, and of the settled hostility to freedom, that he had to guard against, was careful to render, if possible, what he had to say in the y£gis, on the subject of arming, perfectly unexceptionable; and he trusts it will bear exami¬ nation, as a feature in a system of defence which must afford equal security to all interests in the state. » J3 Ed. I. St. I. c. 39. + See the remarks at the end of this supplement. VOL. II. K 66 Under the Fifth head, the writer having nothing new to add, he proceeds to the Sixth. On the liability of persons in the civil state to be impressed, and draughted into the ranks of the mercenarv troops, it is almost as dilEcult to speak without warmth, as on a preceeding article. Accustomed to contemplate the character of a mercenary standing army, as drawn by the pens of historians, statesmen, and philosophers; and alive to the jealousy with which such a military force has ever been viewed by the most enlightened men of our country, the Writer’s feelings, he confesses, re¬ ceived no common shock, on reading the speech of Mr. Sheridan, delivered on the fourth of August 1803, wherein, speaking of those who might not be volunteers to serve under the act of 43 Geo. III. c. 96, and in terms equally applicable to unaccepted volunteers, he told us, “ There was no noblc- “ man or gentleman, he was certain, who would like to be ■“ compelled to march to Cornwal or to Scotland, to asso- “ ciate with the common soldiers in the day-time, and to “ sleep in the same tent with five of them in the night; yet ' •• that must be the case, if they were compelled to go ac- “ cording to the act. No gentleman could take upon him “ to say that that would not be the case within a month ;” and when the writer found this to be a true interpretation of the statute, he was perfectly stunned with astonishment. When through the rapid approach of a mighty danger, or the resistless power of necessity, men are hurried into action before they have had time to form “ distinct ideas” on all that is to be done, considerable errors may be no cause of either surprise, or of censure; but when a conclusion is really monstrous, it is much that its deformity, independent of any reasoning, does not beget a conviction of unsoundness in the premises. Monstrous and shocking things, it is true,, may be justified by necessity; as a part of a crew being thrown overboard, to preserve the lives of the remainder; 67 or some being killed and eaten, that all may not perish ; but we could not approve of that conduct, in victualling the ship, or in appointing her destination, which had produced the cruel necessity. If any reader of the ^‘'.gis shall not be convinced, that, to “ restore to full vigour and energy” the military BRANCH OF THE CONSTITUTION, must effectually pre¬ vent the necessity of any such alternative to “ a nobleman or gentleman” as that we are speaking of, those pages have been written to little purpose. Sir William Jones, who is careful to recommend it to us to form a “ distinct idea” of the posse comitatiis, observes, that “ it includes the whole “ civil st'dte, from the duke to the peasant; while the ?nt- ‘‘ liiary state, as such, forms no part of that power, being “ under a different command and subject to a different law” He has also proved that the posse “ is required bp law to be equal in its exertion to a well disciplined army;” and we know that, for ages and centuries prior to the existence In this country of a standing army, or of despotic articles of war framed independent of parliament, the constitution saw no necessity for putting Englishmen out of the pale of the common law of the land, as a prelude to their fighting for their laxi'S and liberties ; and the writer trusts he has given ample proof, that there Is no more need to subject either nobleman, gentleman, or peasant, to a military conscription as a private soldier into the ranks of a mercenary army on a march “ to Cornwal or to Scotland,” than there can be to force them into those ranks, on an expedition to China, or to Terra del Feugo. Seventhly. Discretionary and suspending powers are so essential to military operations, and in many cases also to a beneficial civil administration, that, unless we are upon our guard, and careful to discriminate, w'e shall be liable to introduce those powers where they ought to have no place. K 2 68 Accordingly, as any point of our coast should be invaded by an army of one thousand, pf ten thousand, or of one hundred thousand men, it is evident there ought to exist a discretion of calling into the field to oppose the enemy a suitable proportion, and no more, of the 'posse comitatus : but no man can admit that, whether there shall, or shall not, exist a posse comitatus itself—-a thing vital to the English constitution and to English freedom and essential to the safety of our country—ought to be left to the discretion of the crown. So far, then, as the statute in question is a re¬ vival of the posse comitatus, the crown ought to have, no power of suspending it. Such a power in the act is either its own strong condemnation, as a hasty and crude measure, inconsistent with the spirit of the constitution ; or it is an unconstitutional feature, Introduced in consequence of a con¬ tracted and mistaken view of the subject. Such an applica¬ tion of the principle of arming, as ought to satisfy rank and property of their security, is consistent with wisdom; and this has been attempted in the jEgis; but we must not subvert the constitution in compliment to the silly fears of nobles, who are too idle to study it; or to the ignorant apprehensions of men who care for nothing but tlieir wealth. The Writer trusts he has so treated this pointy as mustpreclude the possibility of supporting a sound objection to a permanent arming of our population. Considering the disgraceful negligence which has been shown THE MILITARY BRANCH OF OUR CONSTITUTION, it is no wonder that it is become a terra incognita, towards which the timid children of wealth and rank are afraid to navigate ; but it is by the absence of “ distinct idfeas” on its nature and charactci’,—it is by forgetting that the perfection of defensive strength lies in the perfection of political liberty,—it is by not recollecting that our free Saxon militia wholly rests on civil foundations, and that arms- bearing is the civil dut^. of ever\' citizen,—and it is from not having contemplated our system of posse comitatus as holding 69 over every other defensive military system of human invention a glorious pre-eminence,—it is from such errors, that, when men even intend right, they act wrong; and that while they are -animating us to fight for our “ property, our rights and independence,” they themselves (unwittingly we trust) pur¬ sue a course which leads to the squandering of our money, wounding our constitution, and undermining our freedom. Of discretionary powers, and the power of suspend¬ ing laws, the most wise and the most virtuous have ever been the most jealous. On this point might be quoted, amongst many others, the late Sir JV. Jones, the late Lord Camden, Lord Coke, &c. &c. and the exercises of discre¬ tion in a minister not many years ago, towards noblemen of the highest rank and character, on offering military ser.. vices ; and of a Lord of the Bedchamber, towards a gentle¬ man now of his majesty’s privy council, were not calcu¬ lated to recommend the unnecessary existence of such a power in any man’s hands. Eighthly. Notwithstanding all the authorities in support of the driving system, it appears to the writer so inappli¬ cable to England, so unmilitary, and fraught with evils of such magnitude, that he earnestly recommends a mature reconsideration of it, by men who are both soldiers and constitutional statesmen. Ninthly, and lastly. On the adopted system of defence, as we see it carrying into execution, are we, or can we be, se¬ cure against our country becoming the seat of war? To the writer, the reverse is most apparent ; and if the latent, suspended, powers of the system shall not be called forth un¬ til the danger be imminent, or the enemy be in the country, consequences the most fatal, in his judgment, may ensue. While on those parts of the home coast, which may be considered as the immediate outposts to London, we are ex¬ tensively fortifying, and occupying every inch of ground, as though that city were already besieged ; the coasts of whole 70 counties more distant, and indeed a very large proportion of the shores of our island, are, and must necessarily be, com¬ pletely open to the entrance of invaders in any number. Although the French armies on the adverse shores be ever so formidable, yet, it there be no means of transporting hither an\' but an insignificant force, why such anxiety of preparation along the coasts of Essex, Kent, and Sussex ? And why employ on the North Sea station alone, a fleet of four-score vessels, great and small, to watch the enemy’s motions*? But if he have both a large army and means of transport, can you make him relinquish the war, by merely keeping London out of his hands ? Were it a small matter that he should pour into Lincolnshire, or any more distant county, an army with which he could maintain the war upon your own soil ? Ministers, no doubt, have con«ulted military men: But, if we are to judge from the measures actually adopted, they have not, as it should seem, put to them, in the first in¬ stance, the right question. The first question is not— ‘ With u'hat force will you answer for the safety of the country ?’ but — ‘ How shall we effectually prevent the country becoming the seat of war ?' Between the two dif¬ ferent results of these two questions, in true constitutional policy, THE DISTANCE IS IMMEASURABLY GREAT. To the question which ought to have the precedency, the answer of a military man, if he know any thing of the constitution, w'ill be, ‘ Restore the posse comitatus, for ‘ THE PEOPLE IN ARMS is the Only possible fortification of ‘ a great country against successful invasion.’ — But if the other question be put to him, and it he be not versed in the military energies of the constitution, his answer will pro¬ bably be mere])’ professional. When a statesman applies to a professional soldier, for his opinion on the force necessary to the safety of the country., in what sense is he likely to * Written in 1803. 71 understand tlie latter words of the question ? Will he not take those words to mean, the ultimate safety from conquest, as a final result of the military operations on both sides which enter into his contemplation ? He calculates the enemy’s aggre¬ gate force; he calculates the separate armies that the enemy may possibly get into tlie country at different points; he cal¬ culates the strengtii that must at all times, and at all events, be kept in and near the capital, Portsmouth, Plymouth, hcc. &c. He then calculates the distances to be marched, and the tirrie required for concentrating an army, or armies, to meet the invaders; and, considering the rapid foe with whom he lias to deal, he probably calculates various successes of the enemy before he can be materially checked; and then, con¬ templating all that is in the power of masterly generalship to effect, how long the war may be spun out, and bestowing a thought or two on that great disconcerter of plans, the chance of war, he delivers his opinion on the force neces¬ sary to the safety of the country. A professional soldier may not think it is his business to take into the account, the counties that may be desolated, the villages and towns that may be sacked and given to the dames, the thousands that may be slaughtered, nor the un¬ speakable miseries of an English country overrun by a French soldiery, sent hither for the very purpose of de¬ stroying all the sources of our opulence and power. These calculations he may leave to the statesman ; while he himself, m his owm imagination, begins to desolate, in order to dis¬ tress the enemy ; who, in return, jmts to the sword man, woman, and child, in terroreyn, in order to secure his sub¬ sistence. The driving system, which is equally disgraceful, and UNMiLiTARY ill a free country, is already proclaimed (by act of parliament) ‘ Tobc a feature of our system of gene¬ ral defenceand if carried into e.xcution, as enacted by statute, may first carry desolation into the heart of the king¬ dom, and then extend it in every direction. By this pro- 72 vision, as well as from the suspension of arming that has already taken place, before we are prepared to stop a single battalion that should land in Lincolnshire, or other coun¬ ties, from penetrating to the very centre of the kingdom, we have full evidence that it is intended we shall defend our country upon thesystem.— Hannibal maintain¬ ed THE WAR IN Italy for fifteen years : and when a Alassena, a Berthier, or a Bonaparte, may have got foot¬ ing in England with a considerable army, perhaps we shall not easily find an English general that can calculate him out again ; nor a statesman who, in the whirlwind that may arise, can insure the state for six months. ^ The constitution, when all is at stake,—when every thing tliat constitutes the greatness and happiness of a na¬ tion is at hazard, does not calculate : But, calling forth the whole physical strength of the country, kept always in a state of complete preparation for orderly action, it crushes invasion in the bud, if an enemy should be so mad as to make the attempt, and effectually protects the people from the unspeakable calamities and horrors of having their coun¬ try the seat of war. If the military calculator, when he shall have expelled the Invaders, is finally to restore in safety to his sovereign,—not the England we now see and enjoy, but a frightful, depopulated desert, with a remnant of population sunk to the extreme of human misery, what must be the reflections of those statesman (if they survive) who consented to dispense with tlie constitutional, and to adopt the Fabian, system of defence ! Here the writer desires to set before the eyes of his ma¬ jesty’s ministers a picture of their own drawing, in a little pamphlet entitled, “ Important Considerations Jor the People rf this Kingdom," — and which in great numbers -they have “ sent to the ofiicialing minister of every parish in England." It is therein set forth, that “ There is no country, into which the French have been able to enter, where their footsteps have not been marked 73 with blood; where they have spared either high or low, ricli or poor, sex or age; where terror has not been their forerunner, and where desolation and misery 'have not marched in their rear. In Italy, the churches were given up to indiscriminate plunder and dehlenient ; for the laws were substituted French mandates, and military execution ; property was devoured by enortnous contributions ; nor did they spare public funds or charities, or schools, or hospitals for the benefit of the poor, the aged and the helpless ; towns and villages were given up to fire and sword, and the inha¬ bitants were exposed to pillage and murder, by the rapacious and inhuman soldiers, who were ordered to shoot every one who resisted.” “ In Egypt, almost all the inhabitants of the populous city of Alexandria were massacred ; men and women, old and young, and even babes at the breast.’* “ At Jaffa, Bonaparte also massacred three thousand eight hundred prisoners in cold blood, and even poisoned five hun¬ dred and eighty of his own sick and wounded soldiers.” “ In Holland, the palaces were seized on, the cottages soon followed; the merchant, the manufacturer, the farmer, the tradesman, were sunk in one common ruin.” “ In Switzerland, when she had complied with every thing that France demanded, and had nothing more to yield, an armistice was broke, and the country was invaded by an army it had not means to resist; hundreds and thou¬ sands perished by the sabres of the French; and while the earth was strewed with their dead bodies, and while the flames ascended from the once-happy dw'ellings of this va¬ liant and innocent people, the hard-earned and long-pre¬ served liberties of Switzerland expired.” “ In Germany, no sooner had the French become mas¬ ters of the country, than they spread themselves over it like beasts of prey, devouring and destroying every thing before them, They spared neither cities nor towns ■, nei- VOL. II. L ther villages, nor hamlets, . nor solitary houses. They plundered all, high or low, they rifled the pockets and chests of the inhabitants, cut open their beds, and searched graves and coffins for secreted coin; and they even wrung from the people a discovery of their pittance of ready money, by torture. Grey hairs and lisping infancy, the sick, the dying, women in child-bed, were alike exposed to inhuman treatment. Teams, and flocks, and cattle were driven off or destroyed; stacks were burnt; furniture and utensils of all kinds demolished. “ Towards women, of all ages and all conditions, they were guilty of brutality never before heard of; neither ex¬ treme youth nor extreme age; neither weakness nor deformity, nor disease; neither the pangs of labour, npr tlie agonies of death, could restrain them ; shrieks, tears, supplications were of no avail; and where fathers, husbands, or brothers inter¬ fered, murder seldom failed to close the horrible scene.” “We are one of those nations, we are the people whom, they, are preparing to invade: Awful, indeed, is the warn¬ ing, and, if we despise it, tremendous will be the judgment. —The robberies, the barbarities, the brutalities, they have committed in o^her countries, though, at the thought of them, the heart sinks, and the blood runs cold, will be MERE TRIFLES TO WHAT THEY WILL COMMIT HERE. They have long eirtertained against us a hatred engendered by the mixture 'of envy and fear; and they are now about to make a great and desperate eflhrt to gratify this furious, this unquenchable, this deadly hatred. What, then, can we expect at their hands ?—What, but torments even sur¬ passing those \yhich they have inflicted on other nations.” Can English ministers tell the people all this, and yet leave the greater part of their country wholly open to invasion ? Can they tell them all this, and yet, by sus¬ pending their own act of parliament for general defence, 75 jnvice tlie war into the bowels of the kingdom? Can they tell them all this, and yet deny them the only security in nature, against experiencing such miseries and such hor¬ rors, by neglecting “ to restore to full vigour and energy” THE MILITARY BRANCH OF THE CONSTITUTION ? To these expostulations with English ministei's in favour of the English constitution, and to my former remarks, I .have now a few more observations to add.—It is manifest that what, hord Livei-pool calls the, “ detestable policy” of the reigns of Charlts the Second and JamestSxz Second “ to disarm the people which he likewise shows to have been the prevailing policy of the “ three last centuries f;” is at the bottom of this arming for general defence ; since, like all the volunteer and yeomanry institutions, which took place towards the end of the American war, and have from the pressure of necessity been again resorted to at any time since, these statutes have continuance only “ during the present war'," at the expiration of which it is of course in- ' tended that the country shall return into the keeping of the standing army, and a mangled body of forces, partaking now much more of the character of mercenaries than of a militia; notwithstanding it must long have been evident to the dullest understanding, that, so long as France shall be in possession of all those counties “ which stretch their boughs Vito our seas," to deprive' ourselves even for a single mo¬ ment, whether in war or in peace, of the means of an armed, orderly, and effective rising of our population for defence, would be the height of madness ; and when I * Discourse on the Establishment of a National and Constitutional Force, 1794, p. 8. First published in 17.57. + 11). 65. “ Arbitrary princes have for these three last centuries “ neglected their militias, and for their own views rmdered them pur- “ poselp useless and undisciplined.'^ L 2 76 see ministers, in all this extremity of our danger, pertinaci¬ ously clinging to a system which leaves us no alternative but a conquest by France, or a military despotism in such hands as theirs; and the press teeming with attempts to the same end; 1 cannot but denounce such conduct as the HEIGHT OF TREASON : for as Lord Liverpool well ob¬ serves, in his excellent treatise, already quoted, “ certain it “ is, that any number of troops [meaning mercenaries] “ which will be sufficient to repel the strength of France, “ w’ill have the power, if they should have the inclination, “ to enslave us," I must however go one step further than his lordship, by observing, that the existence of such a number of mercenary troops in England would be evi¬ dence of her having been already enslaved. Ministers tell us, ‘ it is also expedient to enable his ma- * jesty more effectually and speedily to exercise his ancient * and undoubted prerogative of requiring the military ser- ‘ vice of all his liege subjects in case of an invasion of the ‘ realm by a foreign enemy.’ Then, combining together the doctrine of prerogative here laid down, the discretion claimed for the king, that is, the ministers, and the practice of ministers since this discretion was given, we shall see, what havoc is made of the constitution, and may be made of his majesty’s ‘ liege subjects,’ under their system, ‘ All men,' from 17 to 55, are to be ‘ enrolled,' if not otherwise serving or incapable; ministers at their discretion may order them to be armed, or trained to arms, or neither ; but ‘ in ‘ case of invasion or the appearance of an enemy in force’— ‘ all the men enrolled’—take notice,—‘ all the men en- ‘ rolled,’ whether they have been trained, or not, or whether they have been even armed, or not, may instantly be placed in such of the ‘ existing regiments’ as are serving in Great Britain ; or may be formed into ‘ new regiments’ -—as ministers ‘ shall judge necessary’—and ‘ be led into ‘ any part of Great Britain for the repelling and prevention 77 *■ of any such invasion;’—that is to say, should we be short¬ ly invaded by those veteran troops whom the well-armed and well-disciplined regular armies of Austria and Russia have not been able to resist, those men who by the constitution and common law of the land, independent of the new sys¬ tem, it has been the duty of ministers to see at all times armed and trained to arms, but which duty they have not performed, may, at the discretion of such ministers, be led -—even forced if a wise minister pleases into ‘ new regi¬ ments,’-—and in perfect ignorance of the use of arms, to op¬ pose such invaders; and should those men when exposed to so unequal a combat quit their ranks, they may suffer death by ‘ the articles of war!! I’ And when the awful tide of war, after overwhelming in its eastern course a mighty empire, shall return westward, rolling towards our shores, and bringing with it ‘ actual invasion,’ or presenting ‘ the appearance of the enemy in force upon the coast,’ what can such statesmen do, but fill the ranks with the ‘ en¬ rolled,’ trained or untrained; effecting the deliverance of England as they have already effected “ the deliverance of Europe T' Again ; although it suited my last argument to quote the ministerial system no further than the operative words cor¬ responding with the title, yet the objects for which those operative words say the ‘ enrolled’ men may, at the dis¬ cretion of ministers, ‘ be led to any part of Great Britain,' are more extensive than I have yet shown ; for those ob¬ jects are declared to be ‘ for the repelling and prevention of ‘ any such invasion, or for the suppression of any rebellion ‘ or insurrection within Great Britain arising or existing ‘ at the tinie of any such invasion.' Could the wisdom of Alfred, and his fidelity and piety towards the liberties of his country, have made any impres¬ sion on the minds of those w'ho framed this system, they 78 must hav^ seen in liis system of defence, the utter impos- sibility either of successful invasion, rebellion, or wsiir- rcciion ; whereas their oxvn system, as jirovcd by the in¬ ternal evidence of its provisions, and by the external evi¬ dence of its never having caused Napoleon for one moment to relax in his preparations-, is likely to be the very cause of invasion ; and I have moreover pointed out, how it is likely from its wretched insufficiency even to generate the other evils here spoken of. In this apprehension I find myself confirmed by the opinion of the Duke of Bichmond, who says, “unless the most vigorous means are before-hand “ taken for this purpose, the confusion and mischief that will “ arise, will of Itself, and without the interference of the cne- “ my, be sufficient to ruin the country. For we maybe sure “ that, besides too many ill-disposed persons who will be “ glad to avail themselves of the first opportunity of adding “ to the distresses of government, there are thousands in “ all parts of the country, who, for the sake of mere plun- “ der, will commit all sorts of depredations, if there be “ not left a very strong force to resist them And have we not other dangers of a frightful magnitude allied to these, which were touched upon in my speech of the 22d of Oc¬ tober, 1803 ? Lord Liverpool, in his Discourse on the Establishment of a National and Constitutional Force, p. 81 f, observes that “ when this island w’as frequently plundered, and almost “ conquered by the Danes, the perfidious invaders of an- “ cient times, the cause of it was, that a proper attention “ had not been paid to the discipline of the Saxon Militia ; “ and it is recorded among the wise institutions of the vir- “ tuous Alfred, tliat by nexv regulations he brought back ♦ Tlioughts on National Defence, 77- f Ed. 17y4. 79 “ this once martial body to its first state of perfection, and “ thereby relieved his kingdom from the fury of Danish “ incursions.” In this statement his lordship is not quite correct, nor does entire justice to him of vvhom he speaks. It was prin¬ cipally, because the power of armed society among the free Saxons never had been reduced to such a system for its exercise, as to become one of the most excellent parts in the frame of civil government, and a perfect safeguard against invasion, but for want of regularity of discipline, fell lamentably short of the effects it was capable of pro¬ ducing, that it stood in need of improvement. Tiiis im¬ perfection having been discovered by tire discerning mind of Alfred, it was not his object to restore it to what it had at any time been, but to improve it, by adding to its natural force, the great advantage of a systematic discipline ; and this he did “ by a beautiful, refined, yet simple mecha¬ nism*.” His regulations, which were wholly new, ap¬ plied, and w'ere limited, to the population of each coun¬ ty ; from which circumstance it was that, in the Norman times, the militia organized on Alfred's plan obtained the name of posse comitatus, or county power. “ Thus,” says Rapin, “ the householders being responsible for their “ families, the tithing for the householders, the hundred for “ the tithings, and the county for the hundreds, every one “ was watchful over his neighbour’s actions f.” Hence this system had among our Saxon ancestors the title of Frank-pledge. ' It is this true species of English militia, (which did not receive such an organization till all the Saxoji kingdoms were swallowed up in the sole kingdom of England,) that forms the key-stone of the community, or the connecting link between the civil and military parts of the constitution. Appeal, iv. + I. 95 . 80 Under its other title of posse comitatus, this very militia has ever since existed, and does so at this moment, and, to use the words of Sir William Jones, “ includes the whole civil state, “ from the duke to the peasant The members of it, in their civil capacity, are pledges for the order and tranquillity of the realm, equally ready with their “ weapons to keep the peace f,” at all times and in all places to watch the motions of strangers, to apprehend offenders, or to keep quiet the turbulent; -as, in their military capacity, they are equally, at the instant call of the crown, to put down in¬ surrection, to crush rebellion, or to repel iiwasion. This, I say, is the constitution and common law of the land. We know that the members of the posse are punishable for neglect of duty, and that in our own time they have been repeatedly punished, when, having failed to prevent the mis¬ chief done by rioters (as at London in 1780, and at Bir¬ mingham in 1794, &c.) they have been made to pay the damage. Nor can It be doubted that ministers are consti¬ tutionally punishable, for resorting to other, and inefEcient, and most pernicious means of keeping the peace and resist¬ ing invasion, while they purposely leave the posse co¬ mitatus in a state of incapacity for answering the ends of its Institution. By a complete restoration of' the county power “ to full vigour and energy J,” as urgently recom¬ mended by Sir William Jojies above five and twenty years ago, ministers would have prevented any idea of either insurrection, rebellion, or invasion, as things utterly impossible of execution; which had been somewhat wiser than introducing a system with inadequate provisions for defence, thereby inviting and probably causing invasion when not prepared to resist it j an event which the language * Inquiry into the Legal Means of suppressing Riots, &c. 14. + Ih. 27. 2Rd. III. c. 3. + Ib. 36. t 81 of their system pretty broadly intimates is likely to produce insuriection or rebellion. The real effect which immediately ensued upon carrying into execution the military improvement oiAlfred, although ho more than what was natural, struck contemporary writers with astonishment, and by posterity has even been doubted, as savouring of something miraculous. The same miracle it is in the power of a wise minister and an honest parlia¬ ment to work again whenever they please. Could Alfred have bequeathed to his successors so much only of his own wisdom, as merely not to have neglected his regulations for the militia, no Dane had ever again set hostile foot -on English land, nor had a Norman government even poisoned with its pollutions the free constitution and common law of England. By certain phrases in the introduction to the ministerial system, I think we see cause to believe, that the framers of it hoped to convey an idea, that they had duly attended I to, and followed as their guide, the ancient constitutional system of defence ; but the constitutional eye that shall com¬ pare their system with that, will Instantly discover them to be of complexions as different as Othello's from Desde- viona's. Not being acquainted with the rules for a levee en masse In Hanover or in Hungary, I cannot guess whether those rules (if any such exist) have been taken as their model; but having paid some attention to the true consti¬ tutional system of our own island, I can safely aver that tliey have not copied from that. The ministerial system does not propose even to nip In the bud the mischief and miseries of invasion, by repelling it at the point of descent, or at half a dozen such points at once, as the revived county power would insure to us. Mi¬ nisters cannot intend it should have that effect. On the contrary their system, for want of physical strength to resist, proposes to desolate our own coast and country wherever VOL. II. M I 82 an enemy approadies; and they make provision for our being marched to Cornwal or to Scotland to meet a landed enemy. But if one still more powerful meanwhile lands in Sussex, we may be counter-ordered thither, or to Norfolk or any other part where the danger may be greatest j and, as if foreseeing the probability of insurrection, in conse¬ quence of the distractions arising from a system so insuffi¬ cient and so goading, they find themselves called upon to prepare us for a march moreover to some unhappy scene • of public confusion, even while the French armies may be on their march for London ! And why a system so empty of real security, and so big • with mischief? Why, but to evade the prayer of Sir Wil¬ liam Jones, that we may have “ restored to full vigour and energy” the posse comiiatus, which, being a part of the constitution, is permanent ? In the eyes of such statesmen zposse comitatus must be ever hateful, because it supersedes j the necessity of a standing army for the police of England; and because a free nation so long as it kept arms in its own hands never yet was enslaved. Of such ministers it ever must be the policy, be the danger into which they have brought their country ever so extreme, to arm the people only partially at their own discretion, and on a temporary plan, as they arm Jamaica Negroes. But not to anticipate, what I have further to say in its proper place on this ministerial system, let me repeat that about two months after transmitting my remarks from Boston to a secretary of state, I published the first volume of this -work, copies of which the bookseller had orders to de¬ liver, one to each of six cabinet ministers, to whom at the tame time I sent, as already mentioned, additional observa¬ tions in manuscript. Considering that the Earl of Liverpool, and his son Lord Xfazokesbury, have no small influence in the cabinet of our . sovereign, we ought to feel no small surprise that they at f 83 least should continue to partake of counsels so much at va¬ riance with the better knowledge and declared opinions of , that noble earl, who, in 1757, told us “ the militia act, “ which passed the 13th of Charles II. was in itself a vague ‘‘ and ill-concerted scheme; and the detestable policy of “ that and a subsequent reign, was to disarm the people After having reasoned unanswerably against the admission of a standing army of such magnitude as to preponderate against a militia, he says, “ Here indeed it may justly be re- “ plied, that these dangers are very far remote, and that we “ are not only secure at present from any apprehensions of “ this kind, but that we also possess a stock ot freedom in “ reversion ; since there is an heir to the crown [his present “ majesty] whom nature has adorned with virtues, pecu- “ liarly calculated to make the people of this country hcre- “ after happy, and who will prolong for many years the free spirit of his grandfather’s government t*” Now as the same noble author says of a “ British king, “ it is his peculiar happiness, that, to do good, his power “ is without bounds; —to do wrong he has constitutionally “ power I,” to whom, but to his lordship, who is pro¬ bably the oldest confidential counsellor about the throne, can we apply to be informed by whose influence his majesty’s boundless power of doing good, from which we might reason¬ ably have expected so much benefit, has been throughout the whole of his unfortunate reign so constantly counteracted, that either in respect of freedom or of prosperity, it has been a striking contrast to the reign of his grandfather ?—By what pernicious counsels in particular it has been owing, that witliin the last fifteen years only, the national debt has been nearly trebled ; the paupers of the kingdom have been * Discourse on the Dstublisbiuent of a National and Constitutional Force, 8. + lb. 68. t ib. 39. M 2 84 increased In number by near a million ; that our country is left without an ally; that France, which in 1792 was a suitor in extreme humility for the King of England's mediation to preserve her ne\^ form of a mixed government, by avert¬ ing the war with which she was then threatened, has, by the rejection of that suit, been raised to be the tyrant of the con¬ tinent, and to a strength that, unless we resort to the genuine energies of our constitution for security, must ere long put an end to the existence of our state ? These counsels have, we know, been imputed to a faction behind the throne. It were to be wished the Earl of Liver- fool, who, in the short “ Discourse” I have quoted, has dis¬ covered no ordinary share of constitutional knowledge, judgment, and penetration, would unmask for us this faction, and mark the men who ought to be driven from the abused ear of their sovereign; and particularly those who at this awful crisis counteract the proper constitutional mode of de¬ fence, on which alone we can rely for our safety.—“ One could have wished,” says his lordship, “ that those per- sons, to whom we were indebted for so many w'ise regu- “ lations in the year 1688, had planned some new militia “ law, more capable of execution [than that of 13th “ Charles W.'] and more agreeable to the temper of our “ constitution."-— what so proper for wise anti virtu¬ ous men to have done, as to have “ restored to full vigour “ and energy” the military branch of the con¬ stitution ITSELF? “ Liberty would then have rested “ secure, whilst her own votaries held the sword, which gave her protection*.” Who, I would ask, advised the clause in the act of 22 an. c. 79, for encouraging Volunteer services for de- * Discourse on the Estnbiijhment of a National and Constitutional Force, 9. 55 fence of our towns and coasts, “ or for the general defence of tlie kingdom,” which permitted the existence of such corps or companies’’ only “ during the [then] present war?” By whose advice'have all the yeomanry and vo¬ lunteer corps, during the Piit and Melville, the Adiluiglon and administrations, had, like the Negro corps in Jamaica, in like manner only a temporary existence “ during the present war,” when all those ministers, when all the law advisers of the crown, when every lawyer in the kingdom, and every Englishman who is decently acquaint¬ ed w'ith the laws of his country, perfectly well knew that every individual member of our “ civil state, from the duke to the peasant,” was already a member of the posse comita- tus, and, as such, was at all times, whether of war or of peace, bound to be armed, trained to the use of his arms, and ever ready at the call of the magistrate to keep the peace, to quell riot, to put down insurrection, to crush re¬ bellion, or to repel invasion? By whose counsels is it that at this moment we are deprived of the benefit of the mil¬ tary branch of our constitution ; so that, should the state survive “ the present war”—which in the present condition of things is extremely q,uestionable—it shall instantly return again into the custody of a standing army, which, although sufficient to establish domestic despotism, cannot defend us from foreign invasion ? The county power of old times, which I call the military branch of the constitution. Lord Liverpool calls the Saxon militia, and the national militia, and in the 15th, 2 2d, 31st, and the 43d pages of his book is eloquent in its praise ; and he tells us that this “ national militia met with encouragement “ or not, as the reigning monarch was well or ill-intentioned “ towards his people: the first and third Edwards, (princes “ whose memories will ever be levered, ^the one as the Jus- “ tinian of this country, the other as its most accomplished 86 “ warrior) always favoured and encouraged it; w’hile Ed” “ -xard the Second and Richard the Second (those rivals in “ brutal lusts, folly, and oppression,) usurped upon the “ rights of this body, and rendered ineffectual those good “ statutes^ which were passed for its preservation,'* CHAPTER III. A Navy and a Militia compared and distinguished. Li¬ mitations of the Power of a Navy. Alfred did not ex¬ pose any Fart of his Coast. French triennial Festival, copied from the Trident published in England in 1802. Abuses of the System of a Naval Defence unnecessary. Effects of a Storm. Effects of an Invasion upon 'Change Alley. Consequences of an Invasion. Expostulation. Here let me mark a trait In the character of him who brought this “ national militia” to perfection, the immortal Alfred, a trait of wisdom worthy the serious attention of the statesmen and soldiers of this day; I mean the discrimi-' nation made by that great man between the different natures, and different powers, and different purposes, of a militia and a navy. Of all our princes Alfred had the most powerful motives for partiality to a navy. It was by a navy, a navy consisting of gallies of his own invention, that he first turned the tide of fortune in his own favour, in his bloody and till then disastrous wars with the Danes. It was, in short, to his navy he was indebted for the means of preserving his throne ; and by the same navy it was that he wrested from his piratical invaders the dominion of the sur¬ rounding seas. No wonder therefore that he, cultivated this navy, and that it should remain very powerful during the remainder of his reign. Besides this, his taste and genius led him to cherish a marine, and to patronize navigation. Add to this again, that it was the fashion of the age among the northern nations to seek profit and aggrandizement In ex¬ peditions by sea. None of these motives, however, could move or influence the steady, the enlightened, the magnifi- cent mind of this great prince, who in an age of Cimme¬ rian darkness was not only the promoter of voyages of com¬ merce, but the patron and historian also of voyages of dis¬ covery. Neither his own taste, nor vanity, nor prejudice, nor fashion, nor avarice, nor ambition, had power to blind him. He maintained a navy more to watch, to harass, and to disconcert invaders than to conquer them. He wisely considered that these wooden walls, although moveable cas¬ tles of great utility, and although they had given him the sovereignty of the sea, w'ere yet peculiarly the sport of the elements, and their best concerted operations might be de- fetjted by storms and tempests, by adverse winds, by rocks and shoals, and even by darkness, by fogs, or by calms. Al¬ though he had made his navy numerous and triumphant, he abated not one jot jn so organizing his militia, as to render every particle of its physical force available for repelling in¬ vasion, although it should assail him in twenty points at the same Instant. This true statesman and warrior did not make that which lay locked up in the bosom of his enemies the subject of his CALCULATION; he did not arm by any imaginary rule of proportion, respecting the strength by which he might be at¬ tacked; but knowing national defence to be the common duty of all, he took care that all should be armed and ready. Knowing that to bear arms was both the right and the duty of every free man, while he held sacred his right, he compelled him to the performance of his duty.— It was not upon presumptuous conjecture in the dark, but upon sight of his enemy, that he appointed the proportion of his forces for the^ fight. He did not draw his force to particular points and landing-places nearest his capital, and say to his enemies ‘ Here you shall make your descent, and here we will fighthe did not leave the more distant counties, and those especially oppo¬ site the best ports uf his enemy, for collecting transports and 89 embarking armies, and counties of which the sliores were by nature particularly inviting to the invader, wholly desti¬ tute of defensive force; he did not thus solicit his enemy to enter and penetrate to the heart of his kingdom, that he might afterwards show his skill in tactics, and manoeuvres, and stratagems of war, for ultimately beating them; much less, did he form a plan of defence in its own nature so ra¬ dically weak, as to require the desolation of iris own country wherever his enemy appeared as a means of retarding their advancement. He did not, in short, rely either upon desola¬ tion, upon a calculation of chances, or upon a navy for that defence of the state, which it was the common duty of all his people to secure by their courage and their swords; not¬ withstanding his navy had done for him so much. And can a navy, I ask, do more in respect of defence than was actually done by the navy of Alfred ? In the English navy I was bred; towards that navy I retain the partiality of my youth ; in honour of that navy I have ex¬ erted my talents, such as they are; and, provident for the permanence of its glory, in conjunction with the honour and best interest of our nation, I can safely challenge, on evi¬ dence now before the public, the most passionate of it? ad¬ mirers, or the most faithful of its friends, for zeal in its ser¬ vice. But, in respect of a nayy towards national defence, I think, and I would act, precisely as Alfred thought, and as Alfred acted. My present allusion is to a 'work entitled “ The Trident; or, the National Policy of Naval Ce¬ lebration;” a work comprehending the celebration, not of the achievements of our own day alone, but that of nine centuries of naval glory and prowess; on a design em¬ bracing the whole compass of naval genius and hardihood from the victories of Alfred to those of Nelson, and like¬ wise patronizing military fame; a design striking out em¬ ployment and patronage to the fine arts, that should speedily raise them to a successful rivalship with those of Rome and VOL. n. N 90 Greece -, and laying solid foundations in the excitement of a fervid emulation, for such excellence in the pursuits of ge¬ nius, and the application of knowledge, as must raise to the highest pitch the reputation of our country. Whatever may be the merit of the national design here spoken of, to which his Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence endeavour¬ ed, in the year 1802, to attract the attention of the prime minister, it is certain that what the French senate have re¬ cently established in the form of a triennial festival, in ho¬ nour of their emperor, and as a grand engine of state policy for the aggrandizement of their country, is a copy, in all its principles and outlines, of the design proposed in the Tri¬ dent for the aggrandizement of England. That the author should suffer mortification in not seeing his country foremost in this race of national honour, is a consideration not worthy of a thought: but the effect it may have upon her destiny, should she not enter the lists in this competition, is to him a painful reflection. Circumstances, I am ready to grant, may justify during their continuance a departure from tiie strictness of principle in any system ; wherefore until we shall be completely armed agreeably to our constitution, we ought to avail ourselves of the best exertions of our navy for defending our coasts; although that navy ought to be more properly employed in protecting our commerce, our colonies, and foreign depen,- dencies. But all the naval aid in respect of defence that is necessary to a rightly-defended country, are a few small squadrons of frigates, sloops, and smaller craft, as mere, scouts to watch the motions of an enemy, and give eaily in¬ telligence of his movements and apparent strength. We ought therefore to accelerate as much as possible a constitu¬ tional arming of the people of Great Britain, the coasts of which now occupy so large a proportion of our naval force; that a double protection may be afforded to the coast of lre~ lard, whose circumstances unhappily would not as yet war- 91 rant a similar arming; and that our trading fleets might have mucli stronger convoys than the necessities of our de¬ fence have hitherto been able to afford them. As to any thing in the nature of reliance for protection on a navy, the only ends answered by propagating the no¬ tion seem to be these three, first, to furnish ministers with a pretence for continuing that which Lord Liverpool calls “ the detestable policy” of the Stuarts ; secondly, to betray us into an abandonment of the common duties of manhood ; and thence thirdly, to cause the real danger of invasion. Let all England but once arm, according to the duty of every man as a member of the County Poxeer, would Napo¬ leon for one moment longer talk of invasion, and of settling [he terms of a peace in London ? Or would he then, by continuing his camp at Boulogne, expose himself to ridicule, by having the tables turned upon him, he continuing at ari enormous expense in threatening invasion, while w'e, by a right system, and resorting to that which without figure or flourish is really “ the cheap defence of nations,” might greatly reduce our expense, at the same time we set him at defiance ? Were vve once put in that dignified posture of de¬ fence, the emperor of the great nation, recollecting how much occasion he has for his armies, for keeping in subjec¬ tion to his authority the many enslaved states he has brought into his dependence, would be too wise to send them to die on the shores of England by the swords of freemen. It is not necessary to my argument against relying for de¬ fence upon a navy, to maintain that, so long as we shall act upon a wrong system, a navy cannot disconcert those projects of invasion which that very system generates. A navy may confine to their ports, embarked armies in Cadiz, in Ferrol, in Rochfort, in the Villaine, in VOrient, in Brest, in Boulogne, and the other flotilla harbours, in Dunkirk, or in the multi¬ tude of ports along the coasts of Belgium and Batavia ; 92 N or—as wind and weather may fall out— it may not !— I repeat— it may not ! By ample experience of late we are pretty well cured, I trust, of the folly of considering naval blockades like the locking of a turnpike gate ; and I hope the brilliant victory of Trafalgar, where the enemy intentionally faced you in a trial of strength, will not induce any sober-minded man thence to infer, that invasion is impracticable so long as our navy is mistress of the sea. Although we have not very recently had one of those tremendous tempests which sometimes baffles all the skill and courage of the hardiest seamen, and makes, sport of the stoutest ships ; yet we have had, as a memento, a tolerable specimen of xvrecked ships employed in blockading since the commencement of the war in 1793.—I myself, however, re-, member a dreadful storm in the month of December 1763, of the description to which I allude. I then commanded a cutter. She lay at single anchor in the Rolling Ground before the mouth of Ilarxvich harbour. It was my purpose to put to sea, on a cruise towards Yarmouth ; while heav¬ ing in the cable, I watched the clouds which betokened, as T judged, an approaching storm; as the anchor came out of the ground, the cutter, contrary to my intention, cast with her head towards the harbour instead of the sea;—saying to the master who stood near me, ‘ I believe she has more sense than I have,’ I allowed her to sail in ; where in the succeeding night, such was the fury of the tempest, it was all that all her anchors, all her cables, and all her crew could do to keep her from driving ashore in the course of a dreadful night, in one of the securest harbours in the king¬ dom. When two days afterwards I got to sea, the whole, coast from Harxoich to Yarmouth was one shocking spec¬ tacle of shipwreck; I saw afloat whole decks of Baltic ships, the hulis of which were gone to the bottom, with masts, yartk, spais, and fragments of vessels without end ; and from one of the ablest and boldest pilots with whom I was ever acquainted, wlio was wrecked near Harwich, I learned that in the height of the tempest all pilotage and seamanship were equally unavailing ; that nought but a sound ship and sea-room afforded a possibility of weathering the storm, and that merely by driving, at its mercy. Had the gale which so soon succeeded the battle of 'Trafalgar been such a tempest as this, and blowing right for the shore, the whole fleet under Admiral Collingwood, situated as it then was, must have miserably perished;—not a ship of them could have escaped ; and possibly not a man of its many thousands, to have told the tale of horror. In such a tempest, according to the direction of the wind, and the relative situation of our blockading ships, an entire North Sea Fleet might be sunk or dashed in pieces, or driven afar off; leaving the sea open for one or two hundred thousand French to reach unmolested the coast of Lincoln¬ shire, where the whole might land, even from transports^ in a single hour; and their artillery and ammunition in a sin¬ gle tide. —Our own loaded colliers fi'om Newcastle and Sun¬ derland, as they come to the southward for a market, exa¬ mine with their glasses the flagstaves along this coast, and wherever the accustomed signal appears, they run their ves¬ sel at high water on shore. Before she is dry, all the carts and waggons of the adjacent villages are alongside, taking out her coals. Her whole cargo is discharged in a tide, and at the return of high water she hauls off again, and sails away. A cargo of impatient soldiers would be dis¬ charged in two minutes. Is the fate of our country to be hazarded on the cast of such a die ? And when French armies may be held in readiness from the nortii of Holland to the Bay of Biscay for pouring into England w'herever they can find entrance, such a tempest as I have noticed might lay your coast open to two, or three, or four, or more 94 armies and invasions at the same time, in parts of the island widely distant from each other ; which, on the constitutional system of defence, might all be resisted and defeated with equal ease and certainty, while the capital, all the interior of the kingdom, and those military districts not attacked, would remain assured and tianquil, whereas, on the present system, were but Jifly thousand French to make good a landing in Norjolk or Lincolnshire, 'Change Alley and Lombard Street would tremble as with an earthquake. While these ffty thousand French are penetrating towards the heart of the country, an English army from a distant quarter must be sene to meet them, or to follow them, according to the enemy’s plan of operations ; that English army must be drawn from positions thought necessary to be defended, and part of it at least must be better trained and better disciplined than the raw levies under the ministerial system of general defence, who have not yet had a firelock in their hands. While 'Change Alley and T^ombard Street are in no very pleasant suspense on the issue of this first descent, news is brought of a second invasion somewhere between the Lsle of Wight and Exmouth. Thitherward must be dispatched anotlier English army ; weakening still more the great points of our previous defence. Our naval force speeds to the places of descent, to capture or destroy the empty vessels, and, cut off a retreat by sea. But while thus occu¬ pied, enemies’ ships of war with troops on board steal out of Brest, and liochfort, and I'Orient, and Ferrol, and- Cadiz, or some of them, leading our blockading squadrons to Ire¬ land, or to tlie West Indies, or on some ocher uncertain chase; possibly to the west of Scotland. And if by all, or several, or some of these operations, our channel fleet can be drawn off, a convoy of French coasting craft and transports may issue from Brest and its vicinity with a third army of invaders and proceed up the Severn. A third English army must now be drawn from our main points of defence; and 95 it is possible ali these French and all these English armies may respectively unite at some distance north-w'est from London in the heart of the country. By this time 'Change Alley and Lombard Street will begin to think serious war in the bowels of England a matter not to be trifled with ; and will begin to doubt of the wisdom of Mr. Pitt and Mr. Lhindas (now Lord Melville), and the rest of that cabinet who plunged us into the war, and who never once thought of restoring the posse comitatus. The grand objects of protection by the marching awav of Jthree considerable armies have now lost much of their pre.. vious defence on the coast side, and consequently some at¬ tack, or attacks, may be that way looked for. In such a state of things, will those turtle-fed gentlemen of the city, who measure the strength of a ntttion by its money, with whom the circulating medium is the only life-blood of a state, and who feel for the pulse of health only in the fon- sols, will these gentlemen, 1 ask, now feel their accustomed approbation of war? Will they still preserve their philoso¬ phic temper amidst the conflict of armies a little way north, and the apprehension of new invaders in the south ? Will they still preserve their idolatry for “ the first financier in the world,”—“ the pilot that weathered the storm,”—“ the deliveier of Europe," —and “ the guardian angel of Eng¬ land?" Their hearts I hope will not yet sink within them; their countenances will not yet, I trust, betray any symp¬ toms of fear; because, now that all these distant attacks have made a convenient diversion of otir defensive forces, there yet remains the main strength of the enemy, the im¬ mense army of Boulogne, its right extending to Dunkirk", its left to Cherbourg, to be thought of. At what premium will tire patriotic gentlemen at Lloyd's underwrite in these circumstances a policy of insurance for the safety of Eent, of Sussex, or even of Essex ? Have these calculating gen¬ tlemen ever calculated the difference befw'een the military 96 genius of a Napoleoi, and the furniture of such heads as have planned our defence? Would any of our insurance offices, at any premium, insure against housebreakers the property of a bankejj.who barred and double barred, who bolted and double bolted, the front of his house, and who left all his back doors and windows accessible to every passen¬ ger, and without even a watchman in the street, wide open r Can any of these calculating gentlemen calculate all the motions and all the changes in the elements ? Can they satisfy us that neither by genius, nor by fortune, nor even by lighting his way and sacrificing even fifty thousand of his men to carry his point, he shall not succeed in landing twice or thrice that number on our coast ? ^ When we perspectively view all tliese possibilities— and it is sufficient to my argument that they arc possibilities— and contemplate the system under which England may thus be attacked at so many points by enthusiastic veterans, and be obliged to fight for her existence -up to the knees in her own blood, with what sensations must we think of the mili¬ tary drivelling, and of the “ detestable policy)” of that herd of courtiers who have cast from them, who have arrogantly rejected, the impenetrable ^gis of the Constitution from the divine hand of an Alfred*^ thataEgis which had so recently been a subject of profound admiration, and of high enco¬ mium, to “ the most enlightened of the sons of menf !” How unspeakably disgusting the vanity and presumption of these men, who “ have betaken themselves to state affairs “ with souls so unprincipled in virtue and true generous “ breeding, that flattery, and court shifts, and tyrannous * The Duke of Richmond, in his “ Thoughts 0 U( the Natioual De¬ fence,” p. 50, evidently suspects the ministers of ISO^t were “ unable to carry” even the shield of their own making. + 'I'he words of Dr. Johnson apjHied to Sir TVillium Jones. 97 aphorisms, appear to them the highest points of wls- “ dom who, in the place of that “ surety, safeguard, “ and continual defence of this realm of England, and an “ inestimable dread and terror to the enemies of the same f,” give us a flimsy pasteboard shield, of their own miserable in¬ vention, made up of perilous novelties patched together, and engaged upon a temporary contract “ during the present war,” and just as fit to stand the tug of warfare and battle, as any of themselves are fit for the command of armies against the Murats and the Massenas, the Berthiers and the Napoleons, by whom we may expect to be in¬ vaded ! What should we think of a governor of Gibraltar who, confiding his outworks to one tenth part ofhis garrison, and, in order to enrich himself by customs and excise, and taxes on the traffic of the other nine tenths, were to corrupt them into an absolute oblivion of every thing appertaining to their mili¬ tary duties, to bribe them to sell their arms, and by frauds and impudent falsehoods were to possess them with an idea, that even to maintain It as an opinion, that they ought to be kept armed and in good discipline, was a proof of disaffection, and a “dangerous proceeding” little short of rebellion^;, and who, by such conduct, were to suffer himself to be surprised, his garrison massacred, and his fortress taken? What, I ask, should we think of such a governor ? And would this, to use once again the words of Lord Liverpool, be a more “ infamous policy” than that whereby, in defiance of the constitution, not more than one tenth part of the proper gar¬ rison of G-reat Britain, now'besieged by one who has threat¬ ened her stale with extinction, and whose threats to other * Milton. + 33 Hen. VIII. c. 6. J See the comment on the impudent letters of Mr. Dundas, (now Lord Melville) of the 9lh and 15th of May 1798, to the lieutenants ©f counties, in the Appeal, Civil and Military, on the Constitution, 195i> ▼ OL. II. o S>8 states and empires have been dreadfully fulfilled, are kept armed, organized, and disciplined to meet the invader? Deceviber, 30, 1805. I am interrupted by a confirmation of the complete triumph of Napoleon on the 2d of this month, in the tremendous and decisive action of Austerlitz. ' a «' 11 I 99 CHAPTER IV. Reflection on Standing Armies. IV^arning to England. Mr. Pitt. The Factions. Consequences of the Loss of Liberty. Fundamental Reform necessary. Reliance on a Navy further considered. The Author's Hopes. Caution. Facility of all necessary Reformation. Will this din in our ears of dreadful battle yet burst the bands of our lethargy? Shall we yet wake, instructively to contemplate the miserable fate of legions of slaughtered mer¬ cenaries, and the capitulation of fugitive armies, the misera¬ ble machinery of despotism ?—to behold the humiliation of arbitrary monarchs ; and the prostration of enslaved nations, at the foot of an instrument, permitted by Divine Providence to inflict vengeance on those who have played the tyrant, and to scourge those who had not virtue to assert their free¬ dom ! Shall we, I ask, look on events such as these without instruction? How awful such warnings to a king and to a people of England! Such, however, are the first fruits of our five millions for continental aid ! Such “ the deliverance of Eu¬ rope” by Mr. Pitt ! And is this man still the ruler of my country ?—this man, whose want of wisdom, deplorable as it is, is absolute merit, compared with his want of virtue ?•—This man, who rose to power by perfidy, whose whole ministry has been a war against the constitution and the finances of England; and his wars against France^ her aggrandizement even beyond tlie dreams of her ambition ! But we must not forget who have been the uniform supporters of this man, and the objects of that support. If we seek the d&\iverajice of England, we must rescue her from the fangs' of three servile, sordid, and Inveterate factions; the faction o 2 100 behind the Throne, the faction of the Boroughs, and the faction of the 'Change Alley Jews, of whom this man, like the golden calf which the stupid Jews of ancient times made with their own hands and tlten worshipped, is still the idol. Circumstanced, O unhappy England, as thou art, thy heroism and god-like attributes, while in the snaky folds of the reptiles, availing nought to thy preservation, to what or to whom can I compare thee, but to a Hercules writhing in the agonies of death, from having been wrapped in the poi¬ soned tunic of the Centaur! Where then are the ancient nobility of the land ? where her honourable landed gentlemen ? where her sturdy yeomanry, disdainful of servitude ? to res¬ cue their country from the serpents—to tear awav the tunic of corruption — to arrest the fatal poison—to avert the threat¬ ened calamity ? Austria, Moravia, Bohemia, and Hun¬ gary, how are ye fallen ! Be your fate England's instruc¬ tion ! Suffering your sovereigns to trample on your liberties, to disarm ye, to bridle your spirits and to ride ye by their mercenary standing armies,—the hateful concomitants of despotism ! —your capacities of self-preservation all lost, to the lowest of human conditions ye now sink ; slaves of a slave! the degraded subjects of him who, in respect of you, is still an absolute monarch, himself a slave of insolent France ! England, awake ! Assert all thy prerogatives of freedom ! Exert all the energies of thy liberty ! Taught by the dreadful example before thee, of all curses keep from thee despotism, of all poisons guard thyself against parliamentary corruption, or thou canst not preserve to thy¬ self the means of salvation ! Allies, thou hast none now to help thee. In thyself alone, thy safety must be found. Even ARMIES cannot defend thee, if, by armies we are to understand a part of the people hired, or selected to fight for the rest. England in a state of siege, ought she to dispense •with a single man of her garrison ? Nor is it only true, that mere armies cannot save our 101 country ; and that tlierefore the crjtlie garrison of the com¬ munity must return to the performance of those duties of de¬ fence, and to the manly habits of their arms-beaiing ances¬ tors; but corresponding reforms in other particulars must also take place, or even that will not avail. An army can only exist and do its office, by means of a system for its appointments, its maintenance, the direction of its operations, and the preservation of its discipline. If the system be undermined, corrupted, or defeated; the army of course is ruined. So it is in a free state, with its armed community. It must have its system correspondent to its own nature, or the proper ends of its institution cannot be obtained. What is County Power ? It is the branch of her constitution. It is but orze half of the institution of government. And is it possible to re¬ store that to health and strength, or to experience its benefit, if the cfw/half be paralytic and dead ! and while the govern¬ ment shall continue to be in the hands of a minister by whose perfidy, and the poison of whose corruptions, that palsy has not only been denied its cure, but dreadfully ag¬ gravated No : the whole constitution must be restored to life and health, and constitutional ministers appointed, or the state must perish. Nature furnishes not any other means of national salvation, but what are expressed in the concluding words of my late essay, “ The State of the Nation -,"—“ TO change the ministry ; to reform “ THE PARLIAMENT ; AND TO RESTORE TO FULL VI- “ GOUR AND ENERGY the military branch OF THE “ consitution.” I must not yet take my leave of the dangerous policy of re¬ lying upon a navy for defence against invasion. Perhaps the Christian world are already sufficiently disposed to contem¬ plate Napoleon as one of those instruments in the hands of the Deity, by which, from time to time, his dispensations for the punishment of nations, and for throwing down proud 102 states and empires, are brought about; and he himself seems well disposed to propagate sucii a persuasion*. Should wc therefore, in consequence of fog, or calm, or storm, laying open to him our shores, behold him in England, at the head of the same veterans and their legion of skilful generals, by ^vhom, in a few hours, without so much as calling his re¬ serve into action, he made mince-meat of the armies relied on for “ the deliverance of Europe,” and overpowered two mighty emperors ; while at the same time our own whole dependence must be on a small comparative regular force, aided by that perilous novelty, a volunteer army, officered by merchants, shop-keepers, and clerks; and the yet-uncreated soldiers to be hastily levied on the emergency under the General Defence Act, who never yet have handled a musquet; who, I ask, can assure us that on such an occa¬ sion the hand of an over-ruling Providence would not.in imagination be seen by the people, and a universal panic deprive them of all powers of resistance ? or even suppose, instead of panic, the most determined bravery Were not the brave ? Were not the brave ? But what availed their bravery, while their commanders were but as children compared to the commanders of their eiicmv i' Believing myself that Providence favours those nations which act wisely and virtuously; and persuading myself that England is not so far gone in folly, as not in the pre¬ sent condition of Europe, and in the present strength and inveteracy of Erance, to see the propriety, the policy, and the rectitude of restoring her constitution, civil and military, as her only means of security ; nor so far lost to virtue, as to be incapable of such an effort; I cannot but kiss with ' See his, Circular Letter to the Fi ench Bishops, &c. dated AuUer-‘ tn-t, December 3‘. 103 humility the rod of our chastisement; drawing from the present calamity and unexampled peril, the balm of a pleas¬ ing hope that they will, under Providence, be the means of reformation both to state and people; whereby our liberties shall be more firmly established than ever, and the national character and prosperity receive correspondent iinprove- xHent. But, should our government and legislature be brought to a conviction, that, in the present shock of empires and tumbling down of thrones, the state cannot long stand on the crumbling ruins of a perishing constitution ; and should thence be disposed to begin in good earnest the work of re¬ formation ; let them be warned against tinkering expedi¬ ents ; and be exhorted to look, on one hand, at the consti¬ tution itself, contemplating its beautiful simplicity and Its Tencrable majesty; while, on the other hand, they survey tlie obstructions, the perversions, the corruptions and viola¬ tions, by which all its beauties are deformed, and its benefits are intercepted^, so. that the people, after having been long grievously oppressed, are now exposed to the danger of a bloody war on their own soil, and at the hazard of subjuga¬ tion to a power, under whose insolent tyranny existence would be worse than death. .. I would particularly urge a caution, not to attempt any amendment of the Act for Defence and Security of tlie Realm, 43 Geo. III. c. 55 ; as well as other Acts, c. 96 "I • > • . ' and 120, afterwards introduced to give it practicabilitv. Look not at such statutes, but at the constitution itself. Keep In your eye nature’s simplicity, and vou will obtain her force. . But let us hope that those who formed' the late continental coalition, and gave their millions for Austrian Russian, and Swedish armies ; that those who either left the plan of the campaign to be settled by each general for himself, or agreed upoit a plan in which at the outset one of the allies was first beaten before the other was at hand to su^* 104 port, and that those who had not an English soldier to co¬ operate before all was lost; that those who had no know¬ ledge of the respective characters and capacities of the dif¬ ferent armies of the three emperors, and of the science, ta¬ lent, and energy with which they were respectively conduct¬ ed ; that those sagacious persons who in the fortune of Bonaparte, “ the child and champion of Jacobinism,” found reasons for denying that he possessed military genius; let us, I say, hope that no such men as these shall have the framing of the laws for restoring to its pristine vigour and energy that venerable English Power to which the defence of the nation ought to be committed ! Shall they be confid¬ ed in to restore the constitution, whose daggers have so oft attempted its destruction ! In urging a change of ministry, a reform of parliament, and a restoration of the military' branch of the constitution, I beg not to be misunderstood by the well-meaning. As for being misrepresented by writers calling themselves Anli- jacobins, I have no other concern on that account, than as it may prevent that part of the community, who only read and decide through the optics and the understandings of such creatures, from forming a true opinion of the situation of their country; and understanding how easy, with the sup¬ port of public opinion, it would be to effect all these changes. A change of ministry rests in the will of the king. His majesty has lately made one change, and as many think for the worse; and if in the present conjuncture he should make another, it would probably be for the better. The arrange¬ ments might take up a very few days, during which time all official business would be transacted as usual. A single statute might effect a parliamentary reformation ; nor need that take effect till the present parliament had dispatched all the necessary business of the session ; whereby that important change would not, as it should seem, be any hindrance to public measures and the concerns of a single-handed war be- 105 twetn France znA England; seeing that the last reforma¬ tion of parliament by Mr. Pitt, when he added one hundred members to the House of Commons, was enacted during war, and in a year in which two hundred and fifty-one acts of parliament were passed ; besides all the business of settling the union with Ireland: and the restoration of the mili¬ tary branch of the constitution, might also be dispatched in one other single statute ; although by a judicious distribution of the matter into two or three statutes the business would probably be done better, and in less time. VOL II. 106 CHAPTER V. Condemnation of Defence on Calculation. A great JTem^ pest. Expostulation. But one Way of Insuring the State. Uncertainty of the Elements. Sir William Jones. Milton. Mr. Diindas. Mr. Pitt. Saxons and Danes. A Comparison. In providing for the assured security of England from either conquest, or becoming the seat of a bloody and doubtful not having been brought up \MChange Alley^ I am no calculator of chances upon winds and weather; and I hold it to be the duty of all ministers, kings, and par¬ liaments to abstain in the like case from all such calcula¬ tions. They need not be ashamed herein to follow the ex¬ ample of an Alfred ; nor need they claim to be wiser than the English Common Law and Constitution, by which all such calculations are forbidden. And in proof that the idea of our being laid open to invasion in conse¬ quence of a great storm is not quite an imaginary danger, I will beg leave to remind my reader of that storm in parti¬ cular, that arose on the 27th of November, 1703, which gave occasion to Addison's sublime simile: So when an Angel, by divine command, AVilh rising tempests shakes a guilty land, Such as of late o’er pale Britannia past. Calm and serene he drives the furious blast; And, pleas’d th’ Almighty’s orders to perform. Rides in the whirlwind and directs the storm. The compliment of this simile was paid to the Duke ot Marlborough, for his genius in directing the storm of war 107 against France-, but has not France now a general to whom a compliment on guiding the storm of war might be equally well applied? By the tempest alluded to, ‘‘ the city of “ London was shaken as with an earthquake;” and the da¬ mage it experienced “ was computed at near two millions; “ and at Bristol at about two hundred thousand pounds.” Sir Cloudesley Shovel * lay at anchor in the Gunjleet with six sail of the line, of which /bwr drove ashore ; one es¬ caped to sea and was driven to Gottenburgh, where she took shelter. And the historian says, “ the best part of “ our navy was at that time upon the sea, which filled all “ people with great apprehensions of aii irreparable loss. “ And indeed, if the storm had not been at its highest at “ full flood and in a spring tide, the loss might have proved “ fatal to the nation. It was so considerable that fourteen or “ fifteen men of xoar were cast away, in which fifteen hun~ “ dred seamen perishedF Parliament being sitting, the commons, on this dismal oc¬ casion, presented an address to the queen, expressing “ the “ great sense the House had of the calamity fallen upon the “ kingdom by the late violent storm; and that they could “ not see any diminution of her majesty’s navy, without “ making provision to repair the same: Wherefore they be- “ sought her majesty, that she would immediately give di- “ rections for repairing the loss.” “ The queen’s answer was suitable to the address, and “ two or three days after was issued a proclamation for a “ general fast, which was observed throughout England on “ the 19th of January ensuing, with great signs of devotion “ and sincerity; and the terror the tempest had left on the ■* It was in foggy weather on the 22d Oct. 1707, among the rocks to the westward of SciUy, where tins great man, with three ships of the line and their crews, all perished, and others escaped as by a miracle V 2 108 “ people’s minds contributed much to their affectionate dis- “ charge of tliat religious duty*.” On this awful occasion neither roadsteads nor harbours were sure safeguards. Rear-Admiral Beaumont with a con¬ siderable squadron, at anchor in the Downs, were wrecked on the Goodzmi Sands, almost every soul perishing. The Arundel, the Canterbury, and Suffolk hospital-ship, drove from their anchors at Bristol, and were wrecked. The Reserve of 40 guns was cast away in Yarmouth Roads ; and the Newcastle of 54 guns, and Vesuvius, at Spithead ; the York of 60 guns was lost in Harwich harbour and the Vanguard of 90 guns was even wrecked at Chatham,^ What a dreadful visitation ! After such an experience, I again ask of the advocates foi defence by a navy, if the fate of our country, with Napoleon and his tigers lying ready to spring on their prey, is to be ha¬ zarded on the cast of such a die; or upon a calculation of chances respecting wind and weather ? and for no other earthly reason than that wicked ministers, uncontrolled by a parlia¬ ment which it has been our eight-and-twenty-years com¬ plaint, does not represent the nation, may continue to tram¬ ple on the constitution, and to govern the country—again, to use the words of Lord Liverpool—hy a “ detestable policy t*” When the gentlemen of ’’Change Alley and Lloyd's Cof¬ fee House have, by calculating chances respecting winds and weather, natural and political, raised themselves to a copartnership with their sovereign in the administration of the government, and the conferring of honours and rewards for * See Belsham’s Hist, of Great Britain, ii. 166 and 284; and Tiii- ial’s Continuation of Rapin, i. 625. + Discourse on tjise EstablishiueDt of a National and Constitu^onal Force, 8. 109 naval and military services, we have reason to fear that these habits of calculating are in their minds become too invete¬ rate to be shaken by argument; otherwise we might suggest to them a material distinction between what called in¬ suring a ship, and what is in fact insuring a state. In the former case, the parties insuring and insured are dilTcrenf, and in different interests; in tlie latter case, they are the same, and have but one common interest. - In the former case, the ship and her crew may go to the bottom, wliile to the insurers it is a mere scratch ; whereas, in the latter ease, if the state shall sink, the insured and the insurers all go to the bottom together. To what I have advanced as matter of fact, in respect of destructive tempests, such as might lay the coast open to in¬ vasion, I am aware it may be observed, tire two cases I have instanced were distant from each other half a century. To those who in such a matter are capable of resting on such an argument, it is buf fair to reply, that another half century is about to expire. Such reasoners and such calcu¬ lators may also, I know, oppose to all that I have said on the danger of invasion, in consequence of calms and con¬ trary winds, fogs and dark nights, their doctrine of chances ; but can these gentlemen, I ask, give us,— not a neemriarv security against a pecuniary loss, but—a real matter-of-fact political insurance of our state and ourselves against ail sinking together ? Have they such a command over the elements, or such a foreknowledge of their motions, as to demonstrate to us the impossibility of a hundred thousand of the enemy issuing from their ports as Mr. Thoinas Paine has described, when he was to have accompanied Bonaparte in an intended invasion of this country, and to have offi¬ ciated no doubt in quality of writer of manifestos } Should our heroic naval defenders, if charged with the preservation of our island, be so unfortunate as to miss the invaders until thev should have made good a landing, w'hat pangs of un- 110 availing mortification must they feel! But, should these brave men behold those invaders leave their ports, row away for England in open day, pass clear out of sight with the means of arriving unmolested on our shores, they all the while denied the power of loco-motion by a dead calm in the elements, raising in their minds a tempest of agonizing pas¬ sions, what pen could describe their misery! On the late occasion, which has shed around our navy such a blaze of glory, when a combined fleet of above thirty ships of the line, French and Spanish, braved our inferior fleet and was destroyed, had the enemies’ force been Mediterranean row- gullies, and the weather calm or nearly so, they might m perfect safety have paraded past our fleet, and have pursued their destination in despite of even a Nelson. But storms and cahns, fogs and darkness all out of the question, such capricious sprites are the elements that, while depending on a navy, whole systems of defence may be frustrated by a mere change of wind, and the destiny of a nation mav hang on the wind being fair or the con¬ trary. According to Burnet and JRapin the Prince of Orange’s “ first scheme was to anchor in the mouth ot the Humber,” but a change of w ind carried him to Tor- bay ; that is, from Yorkshire to Devonshire. And the English fleet, having been ordered by the king to ride at the Gunfleet off the coast of Essex, and it having been de¬ termined by a council of war “ to continue there in ordei to intercept the Dutch fleetwhen that fleet ran past with “ a violent east wind*,” the English could not with the same wind get to sea; whereupon it has been observed, bv a modern historian of great merit, that “ while the “ English fleet was confined to its station off Hat'wich, the prince with six hundred transports and ships of war Rap. ii. 776- Ill passed with an east wind through the straits of Dover, “ in the presence of wondering multitudes, who gazed at “ the sublime spectacle from either coast; and disembarking “ on the fifth of November, at Torbay, afforded a signal “ proof to the nation, that its navy will not always pre- “ vent an invasion, nor a standing army insure the sta- “ bilitij of a throne The English fleet on that occasion might indeed havebegun to sympathize with the best part of the nation in its fears from the arbitrary conduct of James II. and his designs with regard to religion ; yet, before the nation or the par¬ liament had taken any part against the king, the fleet, had it fallen in with that of Holland coming to invade England^ would doubtless have fought with bravery, and totally dis¬ concerted, in all probability, the intended descent; so that the fact, of its being unable to attack the Dutch by reason of a contrary wind, still remains in proof, that a navy “ cannot always prevent an invasion.” Its failure on that occasion was our deliverance; at this time, unless we do by land what our situation requires, such a failure might prove our ruin. Now w’hat, after all, 1$ the idle notion of surrounding this good island of ours with wooden walls, but inveterate habit grown into a prejudice so strong, as to deny us the use of our senses, so that seeing, we cannot see ; and even feel¬ ing, we cannot understand !—Was not recently the whole strength of the French armies drawn off to the very con¬ fines of Hungary, and did we not at the same moment an¬ nihilate her proudest fleet ? Seeing all this, did we at the same time see our way into the heart of France ? Did we not on the contrary feel that, in respect of the power' of invading her, we were just where we had been ? And why * Laiog’s Hist. Scotland, ii. 173. 112 this feeling, wheu we recollect that an Ji7]glisk king did nucc march to Paris, and there put upon his head the Pi'eacii crown? The plain answer is, Prance was then iuteinally weak ; she is now internally strong. Our preju¬ dice I have said is the fruit of habit, and that habit, as fact and redection w ill infoim us, has wdiolly grown out of the court system of “ these three last centuries” and the “ de¬ testable policy” of evil rulers, whereby our natural means of intcniai strength were artfully suffered to fall into disuse, atid even into oblivion ;— until a great and virtuous man— pnsrlatid's brie Legal Means of sup¬ pressing Riots, >*ith a ConsLitutioital Plan of future Defence. Sold b> Mawman, Poulm-. . after an oblivion of centuries by Sir William Jones. Hi« pamphlet was sold for eighteen pence by Dilly, twenty-five years ago, immediately after the memorable riots in London. As the contemplation of those riots was the immediate cause of the publication, so the fearful remembrance of them carried this little pamphlet into a second edition. But when the information it contained as “ to the legal mode of suppressing riots” had produced a few volunteer corps, and the fears of similar disturbances in the capital were thereby removed, this legal gem, containing in a tew pages an in¬ valuable treasure, was no more thought of, and to this day 1 believe there are copies of the second edition unsold. The learned and able author, conscious of the times in which he wrote, exercised extreme caution in unfolding the doctrine of our law and constitution on the subject of arms- bearing, although he perfectly knew it to be as necessary to the safety ot the kingdom from invaders at home, as from invaders from abroad. Milton, who knew the value of his own work, waited with patient dignity for the applause of posterity. That posterity, finding its own honour in honouring the poet, gives it with gratitude and sincere ad¬ miration. So, when Napoleon shall have compelled the people of England to consult their learned countrymen on “ the legal mode” of resisting invasion, and they shall therein find their safety, Jones will universally be honoured to all posterity, not merely as worthy of a seat by the side of Milton in Paradise, by piety Regained, for the splen¬ dour of his genius, but for his kindred soul of patriot virtue ! • Without patriot virtue, where is there any political wis¬ dom ? It does not, it cannot exist. Wisdom is the union of mental talent with moral rectitude. Talent without rec¬ titude is not wisdom. Has Mr. Dundas — has Mr. Pitt wanted talent ? No : But, devoid of moral rectitude to con¬ trol the selfish passions of ambition and the lust of sway, VOL. II. 114 they have proved lamentably deficient in wisdom, and the greatness of their talents has given its present great¬ ness to the calamity of their country. Instead of such pernicious children of faction, such immoral patrons and practisers of foul corruption, governing by the instru¬ mentality of even a greater curse than such ministers them¬ selves— A BOROUGH PARLIAMENTART FACTION, had our unhappy country for the last twenty years been gi)- verned by such men as Sir William Jones, (bred like each of the others a lawyer) under control of such parliaments as he desired to see, on what a rock of stability would its safety at this hour have been placed ? How completely would its debt have been discharged ? to what a feather would its taxation have been reduced ? How loftily among the na¬ tions would her head have been carried r And how much might such an England, under counsels of patriot virtue and po¬ litical wisdom, have aided in consolidating for the good of mankind the early reforms and blessings of the French re¬ volution, and in preventing all its subsequent atrocities and curses * ! With regard to political wisdom exerted in defence of the state, treading in the hallowed steps of a Joiies, and apply¬ ing the doctrine to Great Britain only, I have endeavoured to show what it is. But, in consequence of the pernicious coun¬ sels which have produced in Ireland an alienated spirit, it is not quite so easy to apply our doctrine at the present season to that much injured country. At all events, patriot virtue must be the prime ingredient, and then we need not despair. Kindness, protection, and time, are the essentials of the balm for healing the wounds that now rankle. And until tye can apply that balm, doubly are we called upon to dis¬ pense, as soon as it shall be safe, with every ship and with every regular soldier now thought necessary for the defence of our own Island. * See The State of the Xation. 115 As there can be no history so proper, nor so desirable, wherefrom to draw examples of political wisdom as the history of our own nation where it affords them, so in that history, and in the reign of Alfred —that exhaustless mine of whatever in government is most excellent!—we have a case in point singularly applicable. The ravages to which at the time he ascended the throne the greater part of his country was perpetually subject, and the deadly hate and animosity between Saxon and Dane, are the theme of every historian. These disorders began eleven years prior to the commencement of his grandfather’s reign ; and when he himself was quite overpowered by their numbers and obliged to hide himself in Athelney, the whole country was one scene of wild disorder, rapine, rape, murder, and brutality; and the imagination cannot picture to itself a more inveterate antipathy, than that which then subsisted between the Saxons and their ferocious and devouring op¬ pressors. The genius of Alfred having at length accomplished what to inferior minds must have been deemed impossibi¬ lities ; the navy of his own invention and creation having checked the new invaders, while his military talents pre¬ vailed over those already in the island, who covered after they were conquered a great part of Mercia, East Anglia., and Northumberland, then comprehending what we now term the northern counties, or the country north of the Humber, he now sat down to frame that very system of the county poxver which has been the great subject of this work. His object was to unite his people for the common de¬ fence. But how was he to reconcile fire and water ? How was he to unite, in the bands of amity, the robbed and the robber? the oppressed, and the oppressor? the children of the murdered, with those who murdered them ? How, in 0^2 116 short, was he to make one people of Saxons and Danes, two races of men breathing towards each other nothing but hatred and extermination ? How could he hope to keep the Danes in quiet obedience, and even to make them pledges of security to the Saxons against new comers of their own Danish name and nation, of the same blood, the same laws, the same habits, and the same religion? Had he not found these verv Danes, before he had reduced them to obedience by the sword, a race as faithless as tliey were ferocious, as perfidious as they were rapacious and cruel ? pirates and freebooters, whom no generosity could attach, no treaties could hold, no oaths could bind ? miscreants, who, when defeated, swore peace and submission, but, on sight of new hordes from their native hive, had ever fallen again to war and pillage ? Tell me. Lord Castlereagh, how Alfred was to form a union between these Saxons and these Danes ? —What ! are you dumb ! — Then I will tell 3/0M.—It w’as not by em¬ ploying his Saxons to disarm, to pillage, to insult, and goad to resentment his Danes: It was not by scourgings and half-hangings, by cutting of throats and infernal tortures : It was not by giving their habitations to the flames, and selling die unhoused wretches as slaves, for recruiting the armies of foreign despotism : It was not by turning loose upon the Danish parts of Mercia, East Anglia, and Northumber¬ land, a mercenary soldiery, a part of them chosen foreigners to teach the rest the work of butchery in cold blood; nor was it by that soul-appalling engine of terror, martial law', to be administered by beardless striplings for loading the gib¬ bets of the mourning land. No, my Lord: It was by the light of that w'isdom w'hich beams only on the soul of the truly good, of the patriot lawgiver, and which to the wicked and the base, to the tyrant and his pander, how brilliant soever their mere mental povvers, is alike unknown. Con- 117“ scious of his own benevolent intentions, and of his plighted faith to those who from enemies had become his liege men, he determined to act with pure fidelity. By the mildness of his laws and his inflexibility in their execution, by his vigi¬ lance and his energy, his Saxons felt they had a sure pro¬ tector ; wherefore ceasing to fear the Danes, they gradually ceased to hate them. These, deterred by his ever-wakeful administration from returning to their former habits of plunder, sought a quiet subsistence on the lands allotted them. Not¬ ing these first rudiments of civilization, which he assiduously improved by introducing Christianity among them ; and confiding in those eternal principles of nature by which hu¬ man beings, once brought to acknowledge a common law, founded on pure freedom and impartial justice, become dis¬ posed to delight in peace and order, and soon acquire the grand political idea of a country, and to teel for it the warmest attachment, he determined to sow no seeds of jea¬ lousy by showing any partiality, and guided by that wisdom, which has deservedly placed him first among lawgivers, he soon wrought that miracle of legislation which has been the wonder of all succeeding ages ; he cured the antipathies, he extinguished the animosities, he even eradicated the jea¬ lousies ot the two nations, embittered tovs’ards each other by a war of more than a hundred years and aggravated by the greatest cruelties, and of Saxons and Danes made one PEOPLE, happy and contented, linked and bound together, by his new system of admirable simplicity, in which between man and man, tithing and tithing, hundred and hundred, up to the aggregate of the county, all were Frank-pledges one for another, to protect and be protected, whether against disturbers of the peace, or violators of property, inward or outward enemies, robbers or invaders. Truly a father to his people, he became their idol; and his once alienated children became one family, dwelling together under his ns protection in a degree df concord, amity, tranquillity, and security, that puts to the blush the best administered of mo¬ dern reigns ; affording him all the latter part of his life a feli¬ city and a glory that is without a parallel.—Go, Rulers, and if Ireland, if the strength and defence of the united kingdom be your care, and do ye likewise ! U9 CHAPTER VI, A Comparison of the two Systems of Defence, that pro~ posed by the Duke of Richmond in “ Thoughts on the National Defence f and that of the Constitution exhi¬ bited in this Work. I CANNOT close this work without expressing my senti¬ ments on a pamphlet entitled “ Thoughts on the National Defence,'^ which, not only from strong internal evidence, but from the information of the bookseller, I understand to come from the pen of the Duke of Richmond. It has ever been my opinion, that the defence of England. cannot be understood, and consequently cannot be provided for, I mean by furnishing a right system, unless by one in whom the knowledge of a soldier is united with that of a constitutional statesman ; for a mere soldier, while he forti¬ fied London might undermine our liberties, and while he preserved the soil might destroy the constitution of our country. It has, therefore, been with very great satisfac¬ tion, mixed a little with occasional dissent, that I have read and considered the valuable work I have mentioned, and upon which 1 shall now venture to give at some length an opinion. It has appeared to me, that the defence of our land and of our liberties may go on hand in hand, and that in every step we take our first consideration ought ever to be—the- Constitution—which I trust has not on this occasion suffered in my hands. So far as I had ventured in my first volume to lay down military principles, I felt indeed great confidence 12 ® of tlic solidity of my ground, because I thought I had not gone out of my depth, and had bent the force of my mind to do justice to tny subject; and it is with singular satisfaction that 1 find myself in no small degree supported by one so able to advise as the noble author of the “ Thoughts” Setting apart a few naval opinions, 1 do not at this mor inent recollect cither any principle, or any measure of de¬ fence, in which wc differ, except in mere degree-, and this I incline, from expressions in the work, to attribute more on the part of the noble author to a prudent consideration of the opinions of other men than as a proof of his own. It is therefore highly probable that the late disastrous events upon the continent, and tlie consequent sense of the peril attending our own island, will bring us much nearer toge¬ ther than wc at present are upon paper. The efficient arm¬ ing for coping with invaders proposed by myself, extends to 1,200,000 men; that proposed by the Duke, to only five twelfths of that number. The question for the nation is, which is most right ? And, on the ground 1 have already taken, and on which I think myself immoveable, I appre¬ hend the answer must depend, upon which, in the arming proposed, has most closely adhered to the constitution, and to the laws of nature for repelling with ease any attack that can be made upon us. Although nothing, as I think, can be Imputed to the noble author of the “ Thoughts” as ztMcbnstitutional, but very much the contrary, yet his Grace, I confess, does not appear to me sufficiently to have attended to that important truth which 1 have laboured not a little to establish and to im¬ press on the public mind, that “ the English Constitu- “ TioN is, in fact, a two-fold and admirable system of civil “ and military polity most happily combined; whereby “ these two characters, like the faculties of intellectual abi- “ lity and bodily force in man, are insegarahly interwoven, 121 “ and constitute a complete state, or free government If his Grace admitted the truth, but yet thought it good po¬ licy in corrupt times not to speak out, but to say only as much as those times would in his opinion be likely to give ear to, it Is only one more instance added,, to the million that have gone before, to show that nothing is gained but much endangered by too much caution against shocking corrupt times with honest truth. His Grace’s moderate re¬ form of a mischievous military system has been equally de¬ spised and rejected by the all-knowing, all-wise, all-virtuous Mr. Pitt, of Parish-Bill Memory, as the system of the con¬ stitution itself roundly recommended by the author of this work ; and the mischief now is, that unless his Grace shall proclaim aloud, that he now sees the necessity of going fur¬ ther, such a minister, finding himself at length driven to take advice, will be more likely, in reforming our system of de¬ fence, to stop half way with his Grace, than to adopt any thing so hateful to him as the constitution itself. But had his Grace, after having lent his great authority to a half-way measure, unfortunately died, he could not have amended his own advice when the necessity for doing it arrived, and aiv ill-intentioned minister might in his name have done irrepa- - rable mischief. It is with the criterion of the proper character of our constitution, as equally civil and military, ever in my eye, that I shall draw a comparison between the sys¬ tem of defence proposed in the “ Thoughts on the Na¬ tional Defence,'”, and that of the constitution which is explained and vindicated in “ England's Ndgis.” If I am not mistaken, It will be found that the measures of the “ JEgis” are completely supported by the reasoning of * Appeal, Civil and Military, on the Subject of the English Constitu¬ tion, 1799. Page V. VOL. II. R 123 the “ Thoughts.” If so, it ’«ill be a fair conclusion, that the noble writer restrained himself only from considerations of prudence, arising from a fear that the public mind was not ripe for the whole truth of the case. Although I should have thought that, from a pen of so much authority on the subject as that of liis Grace, the cause of national defence would have derived more advantage, had the full extent of the constitutional principles of defence been as fully set forth as by Sir William Jones, yet, although I have expressed my thoughts already, I wish not to pronounce a sentence of ab¬ solute condemnation on this prudence. In the opinions of many I doubt not it will be preferred to speaking the truth a§ they may think too plainly. So various indeed are the minds in a nation, that various may be the modes in which they ought to be addressed. Some, we are taught, should be fed with meat, some with milk. Some can bear the whole truth at once, others shrink at it, as bats at the light of day. When writers of both kinds, having the same object ulti¬ mately in view, take up a subject of great interest to the public, the greatest good is perhaps likely to result. The whole truth is set before them, and every palate may be pleased. And when the arguments of the prescriber of milk are equally applicable to the use of meat, there is no fear of its being long rejected; and when reason once begins to operate, the baby of to-day who can digest only milk, will be of full age to-morrow, and readily take that strong meat which enables him to exercise his senses for distinquish- ing wrong from right. By a powerful reasoner, and one zealous for the truth, we are told that “ every one that useth “ milk, is unskilful in the word of righteousness ; for he is “ a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of “ full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses “ exercised to discern both good and evil*.” * Hcb. V. J3, 14. 123 As this is no time for idle criticism ; and as I am writing Tinder tlie strongest impression my mind ever felt, that not a moment is to be lost in proclaiming and circulating the necessary truths respecting our defence, I will be as brief as justice to my subject will possibly admit. The questions to be examined are these; 1st, what are the grounds of urgent necessity on which we are called to improve our means of defence ? 2dly, what is the primary object of attention ? 3dly, in wliat degree ought we to confide for defence in our navy ? and 4thly, to what extent ought we to arm ? First then, ‘ IF/iat are the groimds on which we are called to improve our means of defence V The noble author and myself are perfectly agreed, that these grounds arise from the imperious necessities of our situation ; and that we must exert our best energies to pre¬ serve “ the sources of our navy in our arsenals, to guard “ from plunder the capital of our empire,” to keep “ onr “ armies from being overcome in the heart of our coun- “ trij*f —“to save the crown, the constitution, and our “ all f.” Thus at the time of writing both authors thought J. Events, I apprehend, have made this the universal opinion. Secondly. ‘ What is the primary object of attention?’ Much had been said, and particularly by one who had been a minister during the greater part of the late war§, “ on offen-^ “ sive operations being the best defensive system.” To this the “ Jkigis” opposes some argument; strongly recommend¬ ing first of all to make successful invasion an impossibillity || j and it is the doctrine of the “ Thoughts” that “ security at “ home must universally and unquestionably be felt to be » Thoughts, 2. + lb. I.”!?. I The yEgis, vol. i. written in 1803, and first published 7th Dft tember of that year. The Thoughts in the spring of 1804. J lb. XXV. li lb. xxvii. R 2 124 “ the first object of the nation That work then says, “ It is next to be considered, what are the means by which “ it can best be made to answer our purpose of establishing “ once for all, and for ever, perfect security for our island, “ against any force that, under any circumstances, can be “ brought against us. Till this has been done effectually, “ no Englishman can or ought to sleep quietly in his bed f.” But the author of the “ Jh'.gis'^ thinks more is necessary than to propose a right system of arming, for unless other changes can be brought about, there is no prospect of obtaining even this. He therefore says “ Change the ministry, reform the “ parliament, and restore to full vigour and energy the inili- “ tary branch of the constitution J.” When the noble author shall reflect on the whole conduct and character of Mr. Pitt, who, from a state of high com¬ parative prosperity and superiority over France, has brought England into her present situation, and shall likewise recal to his recollection that succession of Borough Parliaments by which that minister has been uniformly supported while ruining his country, I trust he will not withhold his assent to any of the means here stated as requisite. Thirdly. ‘ In what degree ought we to confide for de¬ fence in our navy In the “ Ai.gisf with a very slight qualification, and with reference only to Great Britain, it is uniformly said, * Not at all* In the “ Thoughts” much stress is laid upon naval defence, aS applied to Great Britain. We must always, it seems, have “ such a powerful naval defence “ at home as shall afford every reasonable prospect of de- “ feating all attempts that can be made by an enemy to cross the channel “ No expense or money should be “ spared to put every part of our fleet, and particularly that * Tl.oughts, 2. + lb. 41. T?le State of the Nation, 173 . ^ Thoughts, 2 125 “ for home defence, in the most perfect state possible “ France, Spain, and HcUand are increasing theirs f.” —Our “ navy which is the best of our coasts —“ Our navy on which our ati depends §”—Such is the language which runs through the “ Thoughts but surely without due and complete consideration ; for in the same book we find it spoken of as a thing not at all incredible, that the enemy should be “ superior at Spithead 1| and again “ those from the Texel to Brest are generally admitted to “ be very considerable. Some reports go so far as from three “ to 400,000 men, and it is 'within the reach of possibility, “ that, from unfavourable weather oi’ untoward circuni- “ stances that no j^recautions may be able to guard against, “ a large proportion of these forces from these several ports may be directed to, and reach England^.”: —I thercfoie repeat, that it is not on our navy we must rely in the day of trial, but on the courage of England in «r?;iJ,-determin- * ed to live free or to die fighting. Again. “ If therefore there is a possibility {which can scarce- “ -ly be denied) that by various accidents our ships of the line “ and frigates may not be able to act, and that in dark ‘t nights, fogs, or calms, the enemy’s flotilla of rowing ves- “ sels from Boulogne or oiher harbours, may cross the “ channel without our ships being able to intercept them “ (and in the last case of a dead calm possibly within their “ view) there does not seem to be any solid reason why to “ guard against such accident, we should not be prepared to meet the enemy witb a superior Jiotilla of the same “ sort as his own, without at the same time in the least di- “ minishing the number or size of our other ships in com- * Thoughts, 4. ^ Hr. 40, + lb. 6. I lb. SS. X lb. 23. ^ lb. y. 126 commission, on which, if they have an opportunity of “ acting, we may justly place our greatest reliance Here, then, unless we extend our naval defence to the construction of a new species of vessel with which we are not yet provided, is a complete admission of my argument against any dependence for preserving the existence of our state on a navy ; and if “ solid reasons” can be given against that extension, then, after all that the noble author has said of a navy being “ the best defence of our coast,” and that “ on which our all depends,” he will perhaps be con¬ vinced that we have a better defence, and one to which we must resort without reserve; and against which neither the framers of the General Defence Acts, nor any person what¬ ever, has vet given a “ solid reason.” With regard to the French flotilla of “ rowing vessels,” I am not for paying it the compliment of thinking it worth our serious notice. Arm, as our constitution requires, and it becomes instantly useless. Why then go to the expense of building “ a superior flotilla,” merely that we m?LV pos- siblj/ fight the invaders one hour sooner ? I say possibly, because here again we have only a chance of intercepting them unless we have twice or thrice their number. Mr. Paine tells us the original design was to have “ a thousand gun-boats but, circumstanced as our enemy now Is, perfectly freed from any reserve in his means or projects for our de¬ struction, in consequence of having laid prostrate our con¬ tinental allies, will he not, if we continue our present insane conduct, endeavour to make sure of his object by proceed¬ ing until he has increased his flotilla to two or three thou¬ sand such vessels, capable of bringing over two or three hun¬ dred thousand men, or as many of them as can elude our cruizeis, or fight their way over; for rats, we know, if but » Thoughts on National Defence, 5. 127 sufficiently numerous, will fight their way through either cats, tlogs, or men * ? I will suppose him provided with three thousand of these gun-boats; of which in h\s Belgic andharbours he has room and convenience for twenty times the number; and. along the coast of old France, from Dunkirk to the west¬ ward, numerous small harbours in wdiich considerable num¬ bers can shelter. At present I will contemplate only tb.e Belgic and Batavian ports, not only because Mr. Paine has very frankly told us “ it is there the descent will be car¬ ried on,” but because I believe our enemy perfectly under¬ stands his business. Here I will suppose him to have a flo¬ tilla of two thousand for the grand attack ; but for the rea¬ sons given in my speech at Boston, it will be impos¬ sible to know from what outlet in that coast, extending from Dunkirk to the N. E. above two hundred miles, this flotilla will issue; but what is still more to the purpose, to what point of Essex, Suffolk, JVor/olk, or Lincolnshire, a space also, as Mr. Paine remarks, of “ more than two hundred miles,” it intends to direct its coursej? How then can we oppose it on the sea with full effect, or give complete secu- * On mr.liing an observation to this effect to Mr. Hnlcraft, that gentle- man related a fact of his own knowledge, which may not he wholly uiiiu- sfructive to the defenders of Urilaiiiv.\\o treat gun-boat flotillas with con¬ tempt. The store ofcorn belonging to a stable was much threatened with in¬ vasion by a numerous body of rats ; but as the defence was committed to a cat, a very hero of his species, who daily slew such of (he enemy as he could get at, no apprehensions of serious mischief were entertained. But the grooms before day-light one morning, having heard loud shrieks of death, and sounds betokening serious conflict, repaired afterwards to the chamber which had been the scene of action, where to their surpri.se tlicy found dead the faithful defender of the granary, wlio had fallen covered with wounds amidst the carcases of all he could slay before he himself, overpowered by numbers, was slain. I have likewise been in¬ formed that on Hal Island, one of the Scill^ Isles, no man would be daring enough to pass a night; and that bull-dogs, landed there in a» evening, have been found next morning perfect skeletons. 128 rity to every part of this long line of coast, without having ourselves many such flotillas ? But nature has denied us the means of having many such, or even an equality with France. Our gun-boats could not cruise upon the enemy’s coast. An English flotilla in the harbours of any one of these four above-mentioned counties could not defend the coast of any 'one of the other tliree. Supposing we had only ' one opposing flotilla equal to tint of the enemy, it ought in that case to be ccntrallv stationed ; but although the enemy, as I have observed, has harbours for twenty such flotillas, we have not in such a situation a harbour for even' one. For such craft Yarmouth Reads are too exposed, and the Yarc is a miserable tide haven of small capacity ; out of wdiich at low water I question whether even gun-boats could proceed to sea. Boslon Deeps again are not for such craft sufficiently safe; and GrimshjYaiS not accommodation. Harxt'iih is the only place of security I know; but in the creeks along the coast of Essex there may be, for aught that I know to the contrary, convenient shelter. But how could an English flotilla from Ilarxcich or the Essex creeks oppose a French flotilla directed against Nor¬ folk or Lincolnshire \ where, on every account, I most ex¬ pect one of the grand attempts at invading us to be made ; whether I advert to the circumstance of this coast, lying di¬ rectly opposite the enemy’s best ports of preparation; to that of its being, I believe, the best coast in the whole w'orld for the purposes of an invader who may bring a large army and a numerous artillery ; or to that of its being at a conve¬ nient distance from London, convenient I mean to an in¬ vader, who sees the strength of our defence drawn to the south coast, and those points which may be termed the out¬ posts of the metropolis .i* AikI from the character of the Emperor Napoleon, and the situation in which he now finds himself on the continent, what have we to look for, sooner or later, but such an attempt, unlcss^wc shall completely re- 129 store to “ full vigour and energy” the military branch of our constitution ; unless to avert it, we make such a peace as Austria has just made at Presburg ? And how long would such a peace put -off the return of war and the storm of in¬ vasion ? I have' taken no notice of the lost time, the inconvenience, and the cost attending our building “ a superior flotilla” to that of France. To create such a flotilla would take more time, many times over, than to pass an act of parliament for arming according to the constitution, and carrying that measure into execution. The timber for such a purpose, considering how scarce and dear it is become, would add to those inconveniencies already too severely felt both in the public and private dock-yards. Three thousand only of such gun-boats as Mr. Paine describes would require one hundred and fifty thousand men to row them; and not much less than two millions and a half to build and furnish them with the necessary tackle and artillery ; and all this for no other end or purpose, as I conceive, than the mere chance of fighting your enemy an hour or two sooner, by meeting him on the water, instead of opposing him at land. But is rjot this to persist in error ? Is it not to look for defence, and to seek security, in eveiy thing, and any thing, except that which nature and common sense point out, and which our constitution prescribes ? Is it not this radical error of rely¬ ing upon our navy, and upon the fooleries of a volunteer sys¬ tem, while we persist in rejecting the system of Alfred, than which human wisdom never produced its equal, to which we owe the very dangers of invasion at all ? Let England but once raise on her potent arm the true .^gis of her Defence, and wield the birth-right sword of her freedom, she will then hear no more of invasion or invaders; nor be insulted with demands, as the conditions of peace, that would de¬ grade our county, and prove the sure preparative of her final and speedy ruin. .. s VOL. U. ISO Fourthly- ‘ To what extent ought we to arm '* In the “ it is maintained that we are absolutely required by our constitution, to have at least 1 ,200,000 men completely armed ; and that here “ is not one man or one musquet too much Although the author feels con¬ fident that his reasons, both political and military, are unan¬ swerable ; yet as he has now to support his doctrine against a more limited scale of arms and plan of defence, which plan, as far as it goes, is excellent, of very great intrinsic value, and such as bespeaks the hand of a master; and which plan, by mere implication, in the minds of many of those who know what respect is due to the experience and great talents of its noble author, may be thought to inva¬ lidate the extended plan of the “ I feel called upon for a few further observations, tending to show that the scale of defence of the “ ^Egis” is the scale of safety^ and that of the “ Thoughts" the scale of danger, and possibly of ruin. If I thought myself the best general in the w’orld, I should not dare to offer any plan of defence, which should tend to keep arms out of the hands of a sin¬ gle Englishman, who is bound by the common law of the land, as w’ell as by every duty a man can ow’e his country, and kindred, and posterity, to bear arms for the public defence. I begin with desiring the reader to recollect that the 300,000 men provided by the plan of the “ Thoughts^" are, according to. that plan, distributed around the w'holc coast, and along the whole interior of England; and, from the dreadful experience at this moment before his eves, to observe, that it is the cojicentration of military force on the proper point by which countries, in the perilous game of war, are lost or won. I entreat that this remark may not for a moment be lost sight of. — By * Vol. i. 37. 131 this cilrerion, then, let us try the merits of the plan to which the noble author is reduced, by reducing the number of men to be armed to so low a scale as he proposes. Su¬ perficial observers may think it superior to the plan explained in the “ because on the secure and rocky shores of Cumberland and Westmoreland^ where I admit there is at present little danger, there is in the “ Thoughts'' less provision against if, and in Kent where, according to the noble author, the danger is greatest, he opposes the greatest resisting force ; but without adverting to the constitutional and very solid reasons for a different distribution of arms” hearing shown by me to be necessary, let it be observed, that lam not without a military reason for leaving the western coast of England in full possession of their na¬ tural and constitutional strength ; for I have said “ seeing the enormous power to which France has attained, and looking forward to that period when she must have at her command a powerful navy, as well as to the possible separa¬ tion of Ireland from our empire (unless justice be done that much-injured country) it has appeared to the waiter to be the truest wisdom not to lose a moment in forming ar¬ rangements, whereby every portion and every point of our coast w'ould, at all times, have the most complete se- surity Where the plan of the “ I'/ioughts" gives the greatest strength, it is mere weakness compared with that which to the same point is given on the system of the constitution ex¬ plained in the “ yEgis." The noble author himself talks of 3 or 400,000 men having been reported near two years ago as held in readiness for invading us; and he well knows the French ideas of a concentration of force. He has also admitted that, through various accidents, “ the enemy’s “ flotilla may cross the channel without our ships being *.VoI. i. 28. s 2 132 “ able to intercept them* and yet the defences he pro¬ poses appear to me very inadequate to the danger to be provided against. Let us begin our comparison where the Duke is the strongest, as apprehensive of greatest danger; including Essex and Kent. I have carefully extracted the whole force assigned' for the defence of these counties, including the mill- i tias of Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Berkshire, Oxford-\ • shire^ Buckinghamshire, and half Middlesex, mak- r ing a force of 26,868, besides yeomanry 5021, and' 6600 regulars; total . . Then for Essex, he provides its own militia, and' those also of Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, and half I Middlesex, 14,240, besides yeomanry 2053, and( 3200 regulars; total . . . . For London he allots its own volunteers, 13,443,') and 3,200 regulars; total.. y 74625 But there is an unembodied militia,' which, in case of real attack, is to be immediately collected and brought forward, equal in number to the embodied, namely, 200,000; besides 100,000 of a more aged class ; which are not to be instructed in any thing but' firing at a mark, and are not proposed to leave their own vicinities. But I will suppose these also to be among his Grace’s auxiliaries in case of necessity. Then, in this case we must add to the militia already enu¬ merated, a reinforcement in the proportion of three to two» The collective militias being 41,108, we must therefore add 61,662. to the above collective total of 74,625 ; which gives in the whole 136,287 men. Thoughts. I 133 Now in page 60 and 61 ot iny first volume, it will be seen that the city of London and all these counties, ex¬ cept Berkshire Oxfordshire, are comprehended in my third military district ^ but to' make the comparison strictly just, the constitutional system must have the advantage of those two counties ; which therefore I shall now include in my calculation. The entire number to be provided with fire¬ arms according to the .5iigis being 1,200,000 for a popu¬ lation, according to the returns under the Population Act, as given in the Monthly Magazine for January 1805, of 8,331,434 souls ; we shall easily find the relative armed force of each respective county compared with its popula¬ tion ; and I follow authorities I do not at this instant re¬ collect, in estimating the arms-bearers from 15 to 60 years of age at one fifth of the whole. The population, and consequently the force capable of bearing arms-, will be as in the following table: — POPULATION. armeo force. Sussex . . ; . . . 159,311 31,862 - Kent .... . . 307,624 61,524 Surrey .... . . 269,043 53,803 Berkshire . . . . . 109,215 21,843 Oxfordshire . . . . 109,620 21,922 Bucks .... . . 107,444 21,438 Middlesex‘S' . . . . 818,129 163,226 Essex .... . . 226,437 45,287 llerfordshire. . . . 97,577 19,513 Bedfordshire . . . . 63,393 12,278 2,267,793 453,538 * If in this table London he included in Middlesex, which it ought not to be, then my present argument will be correct; but if London have been omitted by mistake, then the constitutional plan will have in this comparison a very great disadvantage. 134 E.it as in the “ j^gis" It is not proposed to give fire¬ arms to the whole, but only to 1,200,000; we are now to calculate how many of the 2,2G7,T93 would be so armed, which we hnd to be 326,635 ; which of course is the true number to be compared witii the number proposed to bear like arms in the plan of the “ Thoughts.” Strength according to the “ . . 326,635 Strengtii according to tire “ Thoughts" 136,287 Difference . 190,318 which is twice the number, and above 54,000 to spare ; and thus we see the propriety of the encomium bestowed upon the long-bows used by our counfg jwuoer, in the act of parliament which passed in the thirty-third year of King Hairy the Eight, c. 6, in calling them “ the surety, safe- “ guard, and continual defence, of this realm of England, “ and an inestimable dread and terror to the enemies of the “ same;” wliich they could not have been considered, had they not been the arms of the people; and to w'hat extent they were so, we see by c. 9, of the same year, which enacts that ail men “ within the age of years (except “ the clergy and the jpdgcs) shall, from the feast of Pentecost “ next coming, use and exercise shooting in long-bows," “ &c.”—“ Paid that every man having a man-child or “ mcn-cliildren in his house, shall provide, ordain, and have “ in his house for everv man-child being of the age of “ seven years and above, till lie shall come to the age of “ seventeen years, a iiow’ and tw'o shafts, See.” It is a feature common to both plans to be the strongest w’herc there is most danger, but that danger is rather differently considered and differently provided for. In the “Thoughts” the danger seems to have mete relation to the supposed facility by Which an enemy can cross a narrow .sea, rather than a 1S5 , broader one ; which may prove a delusive dependence ; and the greatest defensive force is provided accordingly; wliile the coast of Lincolnshire, which I consider .as of all others most likely to be invaded, is in that plan comparatively weak in the extreme. Hoth writers consider the wealth of the metropolis and its environs, and their importance to the state, as adding to the danger of the south-east part of the, country, hy the Inducements they hold out to the rapacity and malice of French invadeis; but the principle of defence is materially different. By the constitutional system, uhcre there is the greatest wealth, there is invariably the greatest strength, because there is the greatest population ; but a dif¬ ferent principle too much prevails in the “ llioughls,'” as may be exemplified in Lancashire, where the wealth is im¬ mense, Liverpool being next to L^ondon in trade, and the county full of manufacturers. For this whole county the plan of the “ Th'oughts'^ furnishes only a militia aiid yeo¬ manry of 10,342 men; altliough we recollect the attempt of Thurot, when there was not a Napoleon on. the throne of France, nor was the France of that day more than an infant in strength, talent, and energy, in comparison with the France of our time. It ought not to surprise us, there¬ fore, if a squadron should slip out of Brest dr Ferrol, pass north-about and wide of Ireland, and make a sudden de¬ scent on Liverpool for mere depredation and mischief. The noble author, after very concisely mentioning the above force, adds, “ Liverpool or Manchester might also raise, volunteer corps a force, however, which he holds in sovereign contempt, as nothing better than mere a.ssocia- tions for supporting the police. Now the constitution, which knows nothing of such inefficient novelties, provides for Lancashire 134,546 fighting men; which reduced as above, according to the limitation of the “ BEgis," for fire arms, would still be 96,87 1 musqueteers. Instead of 10,342, with a surplus also of 37,675 pike and spear-men. .136 But let us return to the east coast. “ Considering,” says the noble author of the “ Thoughts,” “ the distance of “ the county of Norfolk ixom London, and the powerful ‘‘ force that would be stationed between them, it is pre- “ sumed that 8156 men, stationary in that county, with “ about 2000 from Cambridgeshire at hand, might be suf- “ ficient to resist A first landing; and N^orwich and “ Yarmouth might have volunteer corps for their own pro- “ tection and the police of the country. “ Lincolnshire, still more remote ixoxx\'London, would “ have its own embodied militia 5432; and its yeomanry of “ 7l3 ; to which might be added the militia of Notting- “ hamshire 2256,^ Leicestershire 2572, and Rutland 332 ; “ besides the yeomanries of those three counties, 472, 622, “ and 160 ; making a total of 12,559*.” “ A FIRST-LANDING,” if we do not well consider what sort of a landing it may be, and prepare to crush all the effects of it in the bud, may prove decisive of the fate of the king¬ dom ! Now considering that London and the whole kingdom is, in my judgment, in far more danger from a descent in Lincolnshire than any other part of the coast, I must here again, as before, enter into a close comparison of the two systems of defence, as applying to the approach of an enemy from this quarter. According to the plan of the “ we see here provided.12,55? Also, as above . .. 10,156 Militia . . 4,168 Yeomanry . . . 769 Huntingdon Militia ...... 636 -- 5,573 Regulars . 2,200 Carried over . . 30,488 Thoughts, 96. 137 Brought forward « • • • 30j488 Cambridge Yeonaanry . . . . Huntingdonshire ditto . . . . . . 166 ' - ■ 329 Essex Militia . Yeomanry. . . 1,251 Regulars. . . 3,200 Half Middlesex Militia .... Hertfordshire Militia .... Yeomanry . . . Bedfordshire Militia .... . . 1,268 Yeomanry . . . . . 177 - 19,493 Latent, or Supplementry Militia, to be7 added in Proportion of 3 to 2 3 • • • 48,456 London Regulars .3,000 Volunteers .13,443 Total of Force for the present Object, according to the “ Thoughts'^ ....... I 115,209 TABLE OF POPULATION AND ARMED FORCE. Lincolnshire . . . POPtTLATION. . 208,557 ARMED rORCE. 41,711 Nottinghamshire . 140,350 28,070 Leicestershire . . . 130,081 26,010 Jtutlandshire . . . . 16,356 3,271 Norfolk .... . 273,371 54,674 Suffolk .... . 210,431 42,086 Cambridgeshire 39,346 17,860 Huntingdonshire 37,568 7,513 Northamptonshire . Essex . ... . . . 226,437 45,287 . Carried over . 1,332,497 266,491 TOL. II, t V 138 Brought forward . 1,332,497 266,491 Middlesex . . . . 818,129 103,626 Herts . . . . . 97,577 19,515 Bedfordshire .... 63,393 12,658 2,311,596 462,319 Although Northamptonshire, with a population of 131,757, belongs to this part of my distribution, yet I omit its force, because it does not fall within the corresponding distribution of the noble Duke; and for the same reason I also omit Buckinghamshire, whose population is 107,444; although as his Grace assigns it for tite support of Kent, it would doubtless advance in support of London if approached by an enemy from the north. Here again I must reduce the number of armed men in this table by the same rule as before, which brings it down to 332,958, being still 217,749 more than provided by the noble author of the “ Thoughts," for the defence of the capital if attacked by an enemy land¬ ing in Lincolnshire. I w’ill touch only on another point of comparison. The noble author of the “ Thoughts” has followed the example of the “ Higisf in forming a Reserve of a certain number of central counties. His are, ' ' MILITIA. Warwickshire .... 3,412 Its Yeomanry .... 708 -^ 4,120 Derbyshire . 3,756 . Its Yeomanry .... 330 • ■ •■■■ 4,086 Shropshire .3,964 Its Yeomanry .... 940 -— - 4,904 Carried over 13,110 139 - Brought forward . . 13,110 Northamptonshire ... 2,896 Its Yeomanry .... 1,037 - 3,933 22,665 Tire reserve of the “ ./Sg'ts” is as follows; Derbyshire . . POPULATION# . - 161,142 ARMED FORCE. 32,223 Staffordshire . . 239,153 47,830 Shropshire . . . . 167,639 33,527 Herefordshire . . 89,191 17,838 Worcestershire . . 139,333 27,866 Warwickshire . . .208,190* 41,638 Oxfordshire . . Northamptonshire . . 131,757 26,351 1,136,405. 227,281 I strike out the force of Oxfordshire, because I have in¬ cluded it before, in order to make a fair comparison; but I have here added Northamptonshire, as, although it belonged to one of my foregoing districts, I did not then include it, be¬ cause, in the plan of the “ Thoughts,” it was not in any corresponding distribution, and is included in the reserve of that plan. And it must strike every attentive observer that, notwithstanding the constitutional system is every where so much more powerful upon the coast, I am still able to throw into a central reserve three whole counties more than the author of the “ Thoughts namely those of Hereford, Worcester, and Oxford, now changed for Northampton¬ shire. My force here being reduced to the proportion that would bear fire-arms, proyes to be only 163,679, which is T 2 140 more than the central reserve of the other plan by 141,014 men. Now, if the reader pleases, we will return for a minute to the county of Kenty that we may see in a proper light one main feature of the two plans. Kent is opposite Dun~ kirky Calaisy and BoidognCy where the channel is very nar¬ row ; and it reaches from the coast to the very skirts of the metropolis, which a French army, if too powerful to be checked by the force in readiness for instant opposition, might reach in two days. Now, according to the plan of the “ Thoughts,' which is by far the best I have yet seen, except that of the Constitution, and to which I believe it to have been intended as an approximation, and as much as the noble author could expect from the miserable ministers of our country; according, I say, to the plan of the “ Thoughts^' we see armed and employed in defence of Kent no more of its own proper inhabitants than Its own Yeomanry . 1,650 Its embodied Militia . . . .. 5,184 And its Supplementary Militia, to be collected on^ the alarm . 5 14,610 Whereas it ought to furnish of fighting Men . 61,524 So here then remain.. . 46,914 men of Kent, who, by this system, are doomed to remain helpless spectators of a French army, probably acting in co¬ operation with other powerful armies of Invaders v^ho have already landed in the north and in the west, pushing for London, on a march more properly counted by hours than by days, to overthrow the government, the laws, and liberties of England / HI And instead of the 14,G]0 armed inhabitants of Kent being supported by these 61,524 men of Kent itself ready on the spot, they are to be supported by 6,076 armed inha¬ bitants of Middlesex, posted near the Medxeay, and 2,396 of the Buckinghamshire men lying at “ Colcbrook and its en¬ virons;” making together 8,472 men; to which we will add the proportions of supplementary, making 12,708 more, as soon as they can be collected ; and giving a total of arm¬ ed inhabitants of Kent, Middlesex, and Buckinghamshire, of 35,790, while, as already observed, here are in Kent it¬ self 61,524 men unarmed! Now, according to the system of the Constitution detailed in the “ jKgis,'^ of these 61,524 men of Kent, 44,307 of them would have fire arms, and the remainder pikes and spears, and, without ever sending one unnecessary mile for men, the whole physical strength of the country would, in the first instance, be every where applicable to its defence ; and according to the circumstances of danger any proportion of this force, on the admirable plan detailed in the “ Thoughts,''* p. 62, 65, might be kept as advanced guards in camps or quarters. I have not here adverted to the noble author’s “ central corps of 22,665 ready to march” to any part of the coast, because the nearest of them are in Xorthamptonshirc and IVarwickshh'e, and 1 suspect, before an enemy lands in Kent, will have been marched in other directions to meet other invaders. In our present state, and under our present plan, I sliall expect a double or triple system of military diversion to be attempted by the enemy. As he already secs that he has made his Boulogne army the object of our principal appre¬ hension, he will endeavour to rivet there our attention, and in all the narrower parts of the channel will be continually making demonstrations of a descent, in order, if possible, to draw still more of our force to the coasts of Kent and Sussex, U2^ in favour of his landing a powerful army In Lincolnshire^ and a strong force in the west. If he shall succeed in such attempts, the diversion of our force from the south and south-east coasts, perilous as it maybe, must, of necessity take place to a most extensive degree ; and if it be on this force so arranged on those coasts we rely for security against the Boulogne army, nothing will then remain to us but to pray to Heaven that, as we have neglected our proper means of security, neither storms nor dark nights, nor calms nor contrary winds, may aid tire designs of our enemies. That the reader may l.e the better able to estimate the two systems here comjrared, he will be pleased to recollect that, in respect of the limited plan which turns upon military CALCULATION —a System which the constitution utterly disclaims^ —the greater the distance from London at which an enemy may land, the more it is In favour of that System, as allowing more time for raising up and collecting some con¬ siderable force to oppose the invaders. And that I may as¬ sign to the enemy who may land In Lincolnshire the greatest distance that is at all probable, I suppose the descent to be made seven miles beyond Wainfieet Haven, which haven is the central position between the open and the shel¬ tered parts of the coast, and thirty miles more distant than a very commodious part of the coast of Norfolk. Should the wind be fair from Holland, he might land equally well seven miles on this side of Wainfieet ; but I will still take the other supposition, in which case his landing will be 137 miles from London. Here, then, at the distance of 137 miles from London, on a shore where an army of two hun¬ dred thousand men, or of any conceivable magnitude, may land in a single hour, and its artillery and stores in a single ebb of the tide, let us imagine an enemy landed. Now, ac¬ cording to the “ Thoughts,^’ p. 84, the unembodied part of the militia, which is three-fifths of the whole, “ may be as- “ sembled in every county in less than a week after the ene- 143 “ my appears in force oiF the coast but we are to re¬ member that when the I^erstans were pouring into the Athenian state, with 100,000 chosen men, an army of Zar- flying to the aid of Athens, marched tlie same distance of 137 miles in three daijs*. The noble author of the “ Thoughts''’ says, that “ when the fate of the nation depends upon the issue, and “ we have it in our power, perhaps by double and treble numbers to have that additional advantage, it would “ be MADNESS in us to neglect itf but, if the landing in Lincolnshire should be effected by one hundred and t-jcenly thousand men, on looking a few pages back we find the whole force he has provided between London and this coun¬ ty is little more than one hundred and fijteen thousand ; and that above forty-eight thousand of those are the unembodied militia to be collected from all parts of the several counties of Lincoln, Nottingham, Leicester, Rutland, Cambridge, Hertford, Bedford, Norfolk, Suffolk, Hssex, and Middle¬ sex, on their respectively receiving intelligence of “ the ene- “ my appearing in force off the coastwhen perhaps (such are the facilities to an invader on the shore of Lin¬ colnshire) that if he came with a fair wind, he might be landed before an express could get out-of that county. According to the “ Thoughts,” p. 96, the only force sup¬ posed to be stationed in that county is its “ embodied militia of 5,432,” to be, I presume, encamped or quartered near the coast. As for its 713 yeomanry, they, of course, lie widely scattered. But such handfuls of men must fly with some speed to escape being captured by the light troops of the enemy, pushing forward with the utmost rapidity. As for the 5,160 from Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, and Rutland, “ collected on the borders of Lincolnshire,” it cannot be their business to meet such an. army, but to run a * See Tol. i. p. 27. r Thoughts, 3 . 144 race with it towards London, In order to join the gathering forces in the south. And the same must be the conduct of the Norfolk 8156 men ready under arms, and in short those of all the other Intermediate counties; for, on the plan of the “ Thoughtsf no possible stand can be made, no possible impediment can be opposed, until the French army shall be in the immediate vicinity of London, and the fate of the kingdom shall come to be decided between an army of such troops, headed by such generals, as recently decided the fate of Austria, opposed by an inferior number of English forces, of whom only 10,800 are regulars, including the ar¬ tillery', and the rest militia, led by country gentlemen, the major part of them imperfectly trained, and collected toge¬ ther in an extreme of hurry not unlikely to produce the utmost confusion ; and when we consider the rapidity of French marches, the impossibility, in the supposed case, of either checking or diverting them from the shortest line of march, how can we suppose that one half of the 48,000 unembo¬ died militia, of whom 16,000 would be of the most aged class, who, it is proposed “ should be required only to practise “ firing ball on a Sunday, near or within some small given “ distance of their own parishes*,” could ever arrive in time for even sharing In the action ? Good God ! when shall we see an end put to all these systems of military calculation, and have the sense and honesty to return to the long-neglected system of the Constitution, under which, Frenchmen then be so mad as to invade us, they w’ould see, at every step they took, armed men spring up like grass, in their front, upon their flanks, and in their rear, countless for multitude, irre¬ sistible for number, and allowing them not a moment for rest, and no respite from fighting day or night, until they should sun'ender ! • Thoughts, 70. 145 Not to neglect any material point in which the two systems ought to be compared, let us now notice that of Horse Ar¬ tillery. Mr. Paine has informed" us that when he and Bonaparte formerly intended to land together in Lincolnshire, their hundred thousand men were to have had one thousandjield pieces-, and of course if an army of one hundred and twenty should hereafter land on the same plan, they would have twelve hundred pieces of cannon. Be this as it might, on the plan of the “ Thoughts," there appear to be attached to the troops from Lincolnshire to L^ondon only one hundred field pieces, whereas on that explained in the “ Aigis" there would be three hundred and sixty as a regular establishment at all times. In time of war, if ever there should be the smallest indications of a design to invade us, counties affording such facilities for invasion as that of LAncolnshire, ought to have their artillery proportionally augmented. It is however in¬ deed the settled persuasion on my mind that, prepared as we should be, had we once restored to full vigour and energy the military branch of the constitution, the French emperor would from that moment desist from any idea of an invasion, whether it should be with a hope of subduing us, or for exer¬ cising upon us an expensive terror ; and that of course wc soon might have a peace at once honourable and secure. Slight observers, w'ho do not profess to have any great judgment themselves on the subject of this discussion, may be disposed to think mora favourably of the system of the “ Thoughts" than of that of the “ xFgis," from observing that in the former it is proposed to keep embodied in time of war, in first and second lines of encampment or of quarters, and with a minute and scientific distribution of force propor¬ tioned to estimated danger, no less than 291,000 effective men*; whereas, except proposing “ at all times of danger VOL II. Thoughts, 118. u 146 “ to furnish strong permanent succours” to Cornxvall, and advanced posts of “ no more troops in actual pay than just sufficient for centinels on the coast,” is all that is in that way distinctly mentioned in the yEgis besides slightly hinting at a possible “ camp, or collected force *”. In reply I observe, that the author of the “ Thoughts''' is an experienced general and engineer, from whom such distributions come with a good grace; and that the calcu¬ lating SYSTEM of defence stands in need of all the science that all his military genius and experience can furnish; and even then, if ever put to the test by a Napoleon, will in the hour of trial miserably fail. Such distributions from the author of the “ Ntgis," had his knowledge of the country been equal to them, would have been deemed impertinent. But he had neither the necessary knowledge of localities, nor does the system for which he is an advocate need them. He does not appoint to the enemy the places at xvhich he shall land, and there onhj prepare to receive him; because, land where he will, he shows how it may be rendered impos¬ sible fur him to advance. Showing the government the power, the machinery, by which it is self-evident that the most formidable attacks may be re¬ pelled, it is their business, not his, to apply that machinery, and wield that power ; and the means are too simple to need for the most part pointing at. Now it is this very minute and scientific distribution ot the force exhibited in the plan of the “ Thoughts,’* which betrays its real weakness, and shows the system there unfolded to be a system of defence on a wrong principle. It proves it to be defence upon calcula¬ tion, instead of defence according to nature and the CONSTITUTION; and far too much defence by science, nstead of defence by physical force. Give us, as our Appeal 102, lO'J. 147 solid basis, all the physical force which the constitution "pro- vidts and prescribes, and then as much science in addition as you please ! But when misgovernment the most wicked, as well as policy the most insane, have brought us to the dire necessity of preparing to fight upon English ground, that we may not become the slaves of a French tyrant, it is truly melancholy to see a nobleman of superior understanding, of great military knowledge and experience,—one who speaks with warmth of expression on “ the excellence of the great “ measure so nobly conceived by the proposers of the Gene- “ ral Defence Act,” while beseems to suspect they “feltthem- “ selves unequal to carry it into effect —a measure that would, as he presumes, have given us “ a general armament “ of the people, under a regular system of disciplinet,” in¬ stead of our “ laever-to-be-made-orderly corps of volun- “ teersj,”—it is, I say, truly melancholy to see such a noble¬ man, evidently as a compromise with the folly and the want of honesty in our rulers, compelled to offer us science as a substitute for more than half our physical powers of repelling invasion ! And now that our situation, in consequence of the battle of Austerlitz, must be better felt and understood by the English public than heretofore, it is to be hoped the noble author will no longer adhere to his reserve, but decidedly avow his whole mind on the important subject. As for my pen, exerted as it has been in the “ Appeal, “ Civil and Militari), on the Subject of the English Consti- “ tution,” and in this work, towards establishing the true doctrines of defence, it has not, i am conscious, such an authority as the public mind in military matters is disposed to lean upon; nor as ministers who feel themselves unequal to carry their own best military conceptions into execution are likely to be influenced by; but if it shall call the atten- Thouglits, 50. t lb. 54. U 2 f Ib. 50. 148 tion of only a single leading parliamentary man to the sub* ject, and satisfy him of the rectitude of the principle 1 main¬ tain, that, in'our own constitution, and in the common law of the land, we have the best and grandest system of na¬ tional defence that human wisdom ever produced, I may not have written in vain. I am aware that many readers may be disposed to ask me, if it be my real opinion, that we are in danger of such an armament, as I speak of, making a descent so far from London as the west of Lincolnshire. My answer decid¬ edly is, that if we continue the war, and our present defen¬ sive system, it may be expected; and even to a greater ex¬ tent than 1 have supposed; for the continuance of such a system would, to a mind of half.the penetration of that of Napolco7i, be a demonstration of the feasibility of a con¬ quest. He is one who does not do things by halves ; and now having no continental enemy, no rival who dares lift up a finger to thwart him, why should he not make the at¬ tempt.? And if he should, althoiigh he will bring with him plenty of military science, he will not, we may depend upoft it, leave behind him 7noye than half the physical force ne¬ cessary to his enterprise. In case of a safe landing in Lincolnshire, I have supposed the French general to run a race with our collecting troops for London ; but at what rate the troops of that nation, dis¬ tinguished for lightness of baggage and celerity of move¬ ment, can execute a forced march of a few days for strik¬ ing a great blow', I do not exactly know ; but this we all know, that from the sea coast of France to Austerlitz, (which is a distance, according to my map, of more than a thousand miles) a French army, opposed by regular armies, by veterans against veterans, by science against science, physical force against physical force, found the way through the capital of their enemy, driving all before them, and over-running the country with a rapidity unparalleled 149 in history, ancient or modern ,• and there at one stroke ended the continental war ; and that their general then sat down ' near the field of battle, to cut down Austria from a first to a second-rate power, and to new-organize at his pleasure all the kingdoms and states from Naples to the river Weser. But what, if a French general landing with a hundred or a hundred and fifty thousand men in Lincolnshire^ should NOT march for London, but take such a course and with such designs as I have supposed in page 50, what then must be the first fruits of a war thus brought into the bowels of our country ? If he carried the war into the West Riding of Yorkshire and Lancashire, abounding with strong military positions, have our calculating defenders calculated the mis¬ chiefs that might be done, or the period within which those mischiefs could, if ever, be repaired ? Have they calculated by what military skill he might be dislodged? What regular, or other force to be relied on, could be left in the south for the defence of the metropolis ? And on what schemes for hermetically sealing up all the ports of France from Dun~ kirk to the Bay of Biscay we must depend for preventing the possibility of cew invasions in the south-east, the south, and the west ? But as 1 have already touched upon the possibility of other invasions before such an army could be stayed in its course of desolation, I will not return to that part of mv subject. I may however demand of any advocate for the calculating system of defence, if he can give his country a demonstration—not a probability, but—a positive demon¬ stration, that she cannot be invaded by the warrior that is collecting his armies for the purpose ? And I may again ask for another demonstration, that if so invaded, as 1 have sup-? posed possible, the mischief and calamity that must happen would not be incalculable and extreme ? And I may go one step further, and demand a sound reason why, in the latter case, the state itself might not perish ?—And if 1 have proved that, even without inisemploying our navy on home det'cnce, the plain system of the constitution is a complete and per¬ fect security against all or any of these evils, then what a disgusting and contemptuous idea must we form of the pre¬ tended statesmen who for the last tlrirtccn years have con¬ ducted the affairs of our country ? Now if, by respectfuliv bowing to the constitution, we obtain a solid superiority of force over the plan of the “ Thoiighis” to no less an extent than seven hundred thou¬ sand well-armed men, what can be more decisive of the su¬ periority of the constitutional system ? And under such a securitv, could we in war, unless the greatest preparations for invading us were in much forwardness, ever want more, as an advanced guard upon our border, than the armed in¬ habitants in their own houses? Should we then need to in¬ cur such an annual bill of costs for our defence, as we find presented us in the “ Thoughts" (p. 76) amounting to “ nearly /fee millions and a half," with its long train of “ extraordinary expenses r”—1 must needs think not; and 1 must also believe, as I have said over and over again, that we should hear no more of invasion or invader; that all the long, faces in England would be changed into happy «sountenances, and all the aching hearts into bosoms glowing with the honest pride of conscious strength. Mr. Thomas Paine would then see the performance of his “ impossible his friend Bonaparte would no longer see a “ weak and de¬ fenceless part of France being taught that she could not any longer “ hold the English government “ ill terror, and the whole country in alarm, whenever she “ pleases, and as long as she pleases,” we should soon be blessed with peace on terms of honourable equality with that mighty power, at whose feet so many states on the continent lie prostrate. Continuing in this constitutional attitude, an attitude which can alone become a free people, those statesmen who 151 have lamented that “ at the coniinenccmcnt of war the state “ of our military preparation has never at all corresponded with the means of exertion wdiich the country possessed,” would no longer have cause of complaint. And those per¬ sons, of whom the Duke of JUcInnond takes a slight con¬ temptuous notice, who, either ignorantly, or wickedly, prate about “ a ferocious military nation obliging all other coun- “ tries, at all times, to maintain large standing armies for “ their owm defence”—“ as Austria, Prussia, and Russia,^' which alone, according to these shallow, if not impudent praters, “ preserve any degree of independence,” and which these contemptible beings pretend makes it “ particu- “ larly necessary that England, to maintain hers, should “ follow the same plan*;”— these persons, I say, who thus expose their ignorance, or their perfidy, would then be put to silence and shame. Yes ! to be sure, Austria, Prussia, and Iiussiay with a collective population to furnish fifteen MILLIONS OF FIGHTING ME.N, have shown us how ser¬ viceable STANDING ARMIES arc for preserving na¬ tional independence t ! !" —Proud Austria lies trampled under foot; Prussia shrinks at the sight of the uplifted rod ; and Russia, to her frozen north again retires, winding home¬ ward her mangled columns, like wounded snakes dragging their slow length along f .'---Edifying sights, truly, for teach¬ ing the efficacy of STANDING ARMIES towards the independence of nations, and the honour of thrones ! — Open, O infatuated England, thine eyes, ere thou sharest thc.^-/«i-- trian fate ! —The Austrian fate, said I ? No, no: no .lus- trian fate; no intermediate rank among the nations to which inferior states may still look up. It thou fallcst, to the lowest of the low will be thy descent ! If dead to the call of virtue, if lost to all sense of thy ancient freedom, if * Thoughts. 2J- ‘ Popp. 152 nor libeity nor glory can animate thee to shake ofF thy borough pestilence and regain the pure health of genuine re¬ presentation ; if not danger in her most terrific form can arouse thee to snatch up thy legal sword, and wield thy constitutional -^gis, thy fall, thy degradation is at hand ! — If thus insensible—if thus morally paralytic—if thus ungrate¬ ful to Heaven and ripe for destruction, then indeed mayst thou see in this Napoleon the bolt of divine vengeance to strike, to punish, to degrade, thee ! But, I am asked if, in the volunteering of the four hun¬ dred thousand men I see not the spirit I invoke ?—No : the courage I see is merely personal—animal. It is a courage common to the English volunteer, the French conscript, and the slavish soldier of German despotism; ay, to the bull¬ dog and the tiger. It is another sort of courage England needs ; not the courage of man, as he is an animal, but as he is a citizen; the courage of combined knowledge and patriotism ; that courage which denounces the corruption of the legislator, and curbs the despotism of the ruler ! Until this courage shall appear, the state cannot be saved.—I am again asked, was not this the tourage I witnessed at Hack¬ ney on the 2d of May last, and the voice of which resound¬ ed through the land? True, true, I do now remember something of a right feeling, a transient glow of indigna¬ tion ; but it was about money, not the constitution. There was great stir and much thunder against a placeman who had abused his pecuniary trust; but not a bolt was hurled at TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTEEN LEGISLATORS, wIlO, believing the culprit merited impeachment, yet gave a pro¬ fligate vote to skreen him from cewsztne / Two hundred AND SIXTEEN men, calling themselves representatives of the people, whom vet no popular, no public sentiment could touch, nor any feeling, but a feeling in favour of those who plundered the public treasury ! Loud indeed was the cry, about the violation of a particular law ; but the violations of 153 the constitution by the same man and his compeer in power for twenty preceding years, made not the least impression, nor added a single note to the chorus of accusation! The deep and malignant treachery of both these men to the state> in the point now immediately under consideration—that of the military branch of the constitution —must now be seen in all its deformity, by every man who shall examine the state of our defence, and shall trace those ministers through all their scandalous progress in arming, to preserve the coun¬ try from the dangers brought on it by their own pernicious counsels, from the first factious formation of their yeomanry corps, down to their contemptible Parish Bill, with all their intermediate frauds, and swindlings respecting the militia; while down to this moment not one military step was taken by them, but, rightly considered, was a stab to the constitution. But let me return from this digression, and conclude my remarks upon the Duke of Richmond’s “ Thoughts cn National Defence,” Freely, but I trust candidly, have I de¬ livered my sentiments; for, as an individual Englishman^ I feel constitutionally and highly indebted to his Grace. He and I appear to be so much agreed in principle, that all our 5. 72. 96. 101, 102, 103.106. 120 Corruption, I. x. 109. II. 12. 14 Counties, I. 59,60,61. II. 132,133. 137, 138, 139 County Power. See Militia, aaci- ent and proper Curfew, II. 22. 64 D. Debt of the Nation, I. 115. II. 7. 83 Defence, the Principles of, I. xvi. xix, XX, xxi. 1. 3. 12. 14. 34, .35, 36. 46. 53. 64. 70, 71. 73, 74. 79, 85, 98. Y INDEX 101. 114. II. 2, S. 6. 9, 10, 11. 16. 3.^.41.59.61.89.146. 156 Des ..tlon is untnilicary, 1. 36. 76. 78.80.11 44.71.74.81.89 Despotism, I. 35,36.100. II. 58.62. 76 “ Detestable Policy,” II. 83. 91. 96, 97. lOS. 112 Discipline, I. 24. 115. II. 18.27.29. 9; Dis'. retion, Ministerial, I. 33.37.75. &,>. 103. II. 18, 19, 20, 21. 23, 24. 67,58 Dispensing vvlthl.aws, II. 68, 69 Dri\ ng the Country, I. 65 67. 81. 11. 59. 11 Dund^s, Mr. now Lord Melville, II. viii. 7,8. 19—26. 63.85.95.97.113. 155 E. Election of officers, I. 16.48,49,50 Engineers, I 23 Engl.inu’s present Condition, I. ix. XV. England the Seat of War, I. xxvii. 36,37. 84. 112. 122. II. 41.64.69, 70. 72. 105 Enthusiasm, Source of, I. 12.108 Essex, Defence of, 11. 70. 95. 132 Fabian System, I. xxvi. 68. II. 72 Factions, I. 88. 101. 103. II. 6, 7, 8. 12, 13.19.24. 84 99. 114 Flank Companies, I. 39 Flotilla, II. 125,126. 128, 129.131 Fortifications, 1. 113.120.11.52.70 Fox, Mr. Secretary, I. v. F'ranklin, Dr. 1. 25 Frank Pledge, II. 79. 117 Freedom, I. 27. 36. 61. 98. 112.116. 120 French Annies, Conduct of, II. 72 G. General Defence Acts, I. 4. 18. 69. 77. 121. II. 10. 53. 59. 61. 63. 66. 74,75. 102,103 126.147 Generals, I. 23. 28. 51 Gentlemen at Arms, I. 31. 33. 39. 114 German Nations, I. xvi. U. 3 Grenadiers, I. 31. 39. 74 Gunboats, II. 55, .56 H. Hanover, I. 6. 73 -House of, II. vii. 65 Harrington, I. 90 Historians, 1. 126 Householders, taxed, 1. 8. 18. 37 I. Impracticabilities, II. 36. 54. 150 Impressing, I. 71.74. II. 66 Inhabitants, not taxed Householders, I. 19. 38 ——of the Coast, I. 20, 21. 25. 28. 70. II. 150 Innovations, I. 11. 15. 126. II. 18 Invasion, I. xxii. 24. 30. 38. 64. 67. 75. II. X. 3. 16., 27, 28. 35. 38. 77, 78. 81. 91. 93, 94.111.129. 135 Johnson, Dr. II. 96 Jones, Sir W. I. xi. 4, 5. 7.9, 10. 16. 35. 40, 41. 60. 69. 96. II. 8, 9. 13. 19. 23. 25. 27. 53. 67 Ireland, 1. 11. 28. 64. 67,68. 92.119. II. 43. 90. 105. 114. 118. 131 K. Kent, Defence of, II. 70. 93. ISl, 132. 140, 141 King of England, I. 106, 107. II. 83. 106 Killala, 1. 67 L. Lacedemonians, I. 27. II. 143 Laing’s History, 11. Ill Lake, General, 1. 67 Lancashire, II. 135.149 Levee en Masse, I. 6. S3. II. 57, 58, 59. 81 Light Infantry, I. 39. 74 Lincolnshire, I. 25. II. S3. 37. 41, 42. 52. 54. 70. 72. 93, 94.127,128. 135, 136. 138. 142, 143. 145. 148, 149 Liverpool, Earl of, I. 46. 53. 63. 101. 125. il. 8. 11. 30. 62. 75, 76. 78. 82.84,85.108. Locke, I. 4 INDEX London, I. 39, 40. II. 12. 43. 47.' 69, 70. 80.82. 91. 95. 107. 119. 128 132, 133. 136, 137, 138. 142, 143, 144, 145. 148 Lyttelton, Lord, II. 56 M. Alilitary Branch of the Gonstitiuion, I. V. X. xix. xxii. 36. 44. 71. 73,74. 84. 102. 111. 115. 130. II. 2. 5. 7. 18. 26. 34. 59. 62. 67, 68. 75. 84, 85. 101. 104, 105. 129. 145. 153. 156 • — ...- Council, I. 113 ■ - - Districts, I. 20. 22. 24. 30. 59. 60. 65. 68. II. 133. 138, 139 -Genius, 1. 113, 114. 122. II. 104 -- Government, I. 123. II. 62. 63 -Language, I. 42 — ■ Movements, I. 24. 42. 70. 11. 28 —' Science, I. 14. 77. II. 58. 146, 147, 148 I - Stations, 1. 26. 28. 64 -1 ables, 1. 81.34 Militia, our Constitutional. The same as the County Power, I. xi. 4, 5. 7. 11. 15, 16, 17. 19. 21. 24. 43. 46, 47, 48. 52. 54. 69. 97. 115. 126. II. vi. 23. 25. 31. 58. 68. 70. 80, 81. 85. 88.91. 101. 104. 112. 117. 154 — the modern, I. 4. 119, 120. 129. II. 62. 83,84 Milton, I. 105. 11. 97.112,113 Ministers prior to 1806, I. vii. 9,10, 11. 13. 75. 88. 93. 118. 127. II. 10, 11. 35. 53. 60. 65. 72. 74, 75, 76, 77. 81, 82. 140. 150 Mischief, 11. 42—52. 81 Morton, Lord Chancellor, II. 56 N. Navy, little neccessary to Defence, I. 64. 68. 11. 87. 89, 90, 91, 92. 101. 106. 108. 110. 124—129 Noblemen and Gentlemen, 1. 17. 26 o. Economy, I. 20. 25. 29, SO. 38. 43, 44.46, 47. 116. 118. 120. II. 4. 10 Offensive War, 1. xxiv. II. 128 Officers of Constitutional Militia, I. 49 Ostend, I. 66 P. Paine, Thomas, II. 53. 109.126,127. 129.145 Patn'otism, I. 24. II. 15 Peace, I. xxii. 48. 111. 115,116 Pitt, Mr. I. xix. 18. 50.115. II. viii. 1, 2. 5, 6, 7. 11. 13, 14 16, 1-7.19. 23, 24. 26. 63. 85.95. 99. 105. U9, 121.124.155 ' Popham, I. 40 Popham, Captain, I. 67 Population Tables, II. 133. 137 Preludium, I. 57 Prerogative, I. 4,5. II. 18.76 Property, 1. 17.35. 107.122 Public Games, I. 54. 5^, 56 R. Rapin, II. 79. 110 Recruiting, 1. 38. 45 Reformation, I. xi. 98.100,101.109. 115. II. 5. 9. 13. 18. 52. 101. 104, 105. 124 Representation in P.arliament, 1. xi. 50, 51. 88. 120. 123 Richmond, Duke of, II. 8. 11. 14.18. 78. 96 ■ ■ his Plan of De¬ fence considered, II. 119—156 Riflemen, I. 34. 39. 74 Robertson, I. 16. 77. 79. 96.121 s. Scotland, 1. 92. 119 Sharp, Granville, I. 40. 50 Sheridan, II. 66 Shovel, Sir Cl. II. 107 Sinking Fund, 1. xxii, xxiii. 115 Soldier, I. 121. II. 70, 7l Spelman, 1. 94 Standing Army, I. 2. 11. 16. 22. 38. 41. 43. 46. 63. 78, 79. 85—97. 117, 118. 119. 123, 124. 126. 151. 155. II. 2.29. 49. 62. 66. 75.99,100. 111 Statutes, I. 4. 6, 7, 8. 11. II. 28. 86. 104 ■ ■ - - ■ wanting, I. 52 Stuart, Dr. Gilbert, L 93, 94, 9fi INDEX, Swearing to Arms, I, 7. 73. II. 64 Swift, I. 90 T. Taxation, I. 95. 103 Temple, Sir W. I. 90. 123. II. 30. 57 Texel, II. 37. 39,40.125 Tithing, I. 49 Trade, II. 30, 31, 32 Training and Exercise, I. 6. 18. 37. 39, 40.45.47. 76. II. 25.27 Trenchard, I. 90 Trident, the, I. 56. II. 89 U. V. Ukase, Russian, I. xii. 129 Unanimity, I. 12.103, 104. 108 Union, I. 20. 26. 28. 59. 70. II. 116. Volunteers, I. xv. xvii. 29, 32. 47. 71,72. 112.114. II. 19. 23. 63, 64. 75. 84.102. 129.152 w. Walpole, Sir Rob. I. xxii. War, I. 123 War of Eord North, T -of Mr. Pitt, V II. 6. 8 -of Mr. Addington, j Weapons for Peace, 1. 6. 18. 40. II. 27 Weapontakes, I. 30. 32, 33, 34. 45- 49. 58. 60. 114 William, King, II. vii. ' Williams, David, I. 37 Windham, Mr. Secretary, I. 117. IE V. Y. Yorke, Mr. Secretary, I. 44. II. 17. 24 Yorkshire, II. 149 Young, Mr. 1. 8. II. 63 Youth to be trained, I. 29. 42. 115. II. 27, 28, 29. 134 ERRATA. VOL. I. Page 104 line 23, read, Alfred’s Bow [For a title to the Song]. VOL. II. Psge 7, line 6, read April 8, June 12 and 25. 47, line 29, read up; with Redents. 53, line 22, read mangled. 78, line 24, read countries. 81, line 13, read ever. 97, line 27, read “ detestable policy.” 129, line 34. read country. 148, line 10, read the coast. f tinted by C, Mercier and Nv- i Northumberland-Caurt, Strand. CALL NUMBER Vol. /" *JL Date (for periodical) Copy No.