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army of France was destroyed, there they were even more safe now than was surely no military danger to be at that period, or than they ever were apprehended on her account. If we while the chain of the French colonies kept up men at Cambray and Condé, remained unbroken. About 4000 men it was perfectly needless to keep them would, in his opinion, be amply suffiat Colchester and Chelmsford; in cient for them. Another importaut short, if our army was to be kept in subject was Canada, which, he believ France, we did not want it here. The ed, as far as frontier went, was strongsame might be said respecting a large er rather than weaker than it was benaval establishment; it was not requi- fore; for the possession of Upper Cared. Neither France nor Spain had nada materially strengthened Quebec. any navies at all. As to our troops There was a force of Canadian militia, for foreign stations, they appeared so excellently disciplined, that full relarge beyond all possible necessity. liance might be placed on it, as to its There were to be 11,000 men for Gib- assistance in case of danger. Respectraltar; but there was no reason why ing Ireland, it was a melancholy suba higher number of men were wanted ject; his idea was, that there should for the Mediterranean now than was be a specific enquiry into the real state necessary in 1791, when the establish- of that country, for we only know ment was between 4000 and 5000 that there is a great degree of local men. In the Ionian islands there were disturbance about tithes; but there to be 3500. He would call upon was no symptom of rebellion against the House to consider the nature, the government. There could thereterms, and principles of that acquisi- fore be nothing to occasion the contition, in order to see what grounds there nual employment there of 25,000 men, were for any danger arising in those except to assist the police, and their islands. It could not be from Russia, aid was not grounded on any positive or from Austria; for it was by the con- or actual necessity. In referring to currence of those two powers that we the unhappy state of Ireland, it was took possession of them. It was impossible to refrain from lamenting surely not to protect ourselves against the course which England had heretothe inhabitants; for they conceived fore pursued, and was still pursuing that our coming was from a disposi towards her. Every application had tion to deliver them from the thral- been resorted to, to suppress the condom under which they had previously sequences of the evil, but none to relaboured. He must therefore think move its cause. He would not inthat 12 or 1500 men would be a num- deed, in referring to this painful topic, ber fully adequate for those posses- call on them to repeal at once the sions. The same might be said of whole of their accumulated system, Batavia and Ceylon, and even of In- but he trusted that a sufficient inducedia itself, where, if we were anxious ment appeared on the face of the questo find an enemy, we had to seek him tion, to impress in the proper quarter on the frontiers of Napaul or Thibet. the necessity of resorting, as soon as He therefore thought that all our fo- it was possible, to the diffusion of a reign establishments were too large; better system in that country. As to and he was sure the House would England, the military establishment think that 14 000 men for the West was also extraordinary, and the motive Indies was out of all proportion. In for its existence worse. We were now 1791 the establishment for those colo- to depart from the old system of colnies was not more than 2000, and surely lecting our revenue, and to employ a

military force against smugglers. The cutters heretofore, employed by the customs and excise departments were to be suppressed, and the navy vessels to be employed in their place. He was old-fashioned enough to object to this sort of arrangement on a variety of grounds-he preferred the King's forces to be in an auxiliary state to the customs, and not their principal; be sides, the alteration would lead to the bribery and debauchery of the soldiers a change most fatal to their character and discipline, and yet one necessarily arising out of the new habits into which they would be thrown. But even if a case of danger could be made out, he thought we had lost sight of maintaining the best species of force. The militia furnished the most eligible defence for the country, and, with an auxiliary force of twelve or fourteen thousand regulars, it would be quite sufficient for all the duties which the army would have to perform." In reply to Mr Lewis, Mr Yorke maintained, "that the enormous extent and wealth of the British empire ren. dered it indispensibly necessary that we should have some standing army, if we meant to preserve the blessings that had been handed down to us by our ancestors. Such, he asserted, had been the practice of the country ever since the Revolution, at which time a standing army was first established, and had continued to the present time. He therefore apprehended that there could be no possible objection to the practice. Nobody would be more ready than himself to admit, that a legal and constitutional jealousy ought to be exercised on this subject, as far as related to a standing army being under the control of the crown; but the amount of the jealousy ought not to go beyond the proportion of the amount of the army. Nobody was more anxious than himself that the standing army should be under the ci

vil government, and especially subject to the control of parliament. The ancient jealousy against a standing army, it ought to be recollected, was against such a force being maintained in these realms, and not so much from disapprobation of that which might be kept up in our foreign possessions. This was expressed in the bill of rights, as it was in the mutiny bill founded on the bill of rights. He approved of the practice which had been introduced in modern times of bringing the army kept up in our foreign possessions under the control of parliament, as well as that maintained within these realms. The increase of men which the present peace establishment required, was small, compared with the increased greatness of the country."

Mr Brougham rose on the conclusion of Mr Yorke's speech, and expressed much indignation at "the cool calm tone with which that gentleman had laid down principles, unknown to the purity of our fathers, and repug nant to the spirit of the constitution." He expressed his conviction that the more the calculation was followed up, the less would the proposers of this unexampled establishment gain by the scrutiny; and they would gladly resort to general arguments and the visions of remote danger drawn from the military spirit of Europe. If we might apprehend danger from this spirit at some future time, a plain man would ask, why we should not wait a few years, and save ourselves and our resources till the danger manifested itself. It was evident that the results of the last victory had been such, in the dismemberment of France, that though that country had the wish to revenge itself, and though we could not trust either its monarch or his family, the state of Europe and the aggrandizement of our own military character left us less to fear from our natural enemy (as France has been call

ed), than at any time since the revolu-
tion of 1688, or even long before that
epoch. And this was the moment
when it proposed to establish a perpe-
tual military force which had never
been contemplated when all Europe
was leagued against us, not even at
times when war was actually raging!
It was a fact, as to which the Chancellor
of the Exchequer might satisfy himself
by figures, to which he loved so well
to refer, that in the Seven Years War,
when we defeated France in all quar-
ters of the globe, our military force
was not half that which was now
proposed as a peace establishment.
But they were told it was a chi-
mera to suppose that an army could
be dangerous to the constitution; that
an army was the most innocent and
harmless of all establishments. With
out enquiring into all the ways in which
an army might be injurious to the
constitution, was it not enough to
prove the danger, that it bore with it
an immense system of influence, which
was not the less injurious to the inte-
rests of the people, or less fatal to the
constitution, because it was not in the
hands of a responsible minister who
might be questioned day by day in
that House (though questions of late
had not been answered), but in the
hands of a person intimately connect-
ed both by interest and blood, with
a power which was neither lords nor
commons, nor cabinet, but the crown
itself? Was there no danger to be
apprehended from the traffic which
might possibly take place between
the crown and powerful individuals,
who in return for commissions might
engage their families to
serve the
monarch politically, and themselves to
serve him military? In conclusion,
he apologised for having, perhaps,
wasted more time than they deserved
on the propositions which had that
night been advanced, but the unwar-
rantable principles, and the cool talk

of the right honourable gentleman, as to the bugbear of a standing army which bad frightened the opposition side of the House, had provoked him to enter his protest against those principles, and endeavour to recall to the House the feelings of better times."

The general statements of these members were answered by Mr Wellesley Pole, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Lord Castlereagh. According to them, the apprehensions of these gentlemen had been excited by regarding too exclusively the ex facie large amount of the armed force to be maintained, and neglecting to take into due consideration the increase great of our colonial possessions on the one hand, and on the other, those alterations in the situation of affairs at home which we have already seen alluded to by Mr Yorke. The largest item in the estimates was the army of 25 000 men for Ireland. But we are concerned to say, that Mr Peele laid before the House but too sufficient an explanation of the circumstances which had appeared to demand that force. On this occasion, and on the subsequent one of a motion made by Sir John Newport, for an enquiry into the state of the sister kingdom, details were produced, which proved abundantly, that from whatever causes they might have arisen, the disturbances in that country were still of the most extensive and alarming nature, and that without an armed force equal to that proposed, the public security could not be expected to be maintained.

The navy estimates were brought before the House by Sir George Warrender, and the proposed establishment of 30,000 seamen, was agreed to after considerable discussion, partly of a very disagreeable and personal nature.

From the commencement of the session, the subject connected with finance, which occupied most of the

public attention, was the avowed intention of ministers to propose the continuation of the property tax. Although it was hinted from the beginning, and in the sequel expressly sta. ted, by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that the tax would be proposed at a diminished rate, (five instead of ten per cent.); and that, in the mode of levying it, alterations would be introduced tending to lessen the repugnance felt by commercial men to the exposition of their private affairs; these suggestions proved entirely ineffectual to subdue the growing aversion manifested in almost every part of the island to the prolonged existence of this tax. Petitions were poured into the House from every district, signed too, in many instances, and in particular in the case of the city of London, by men of the highest respectability, who had, during all the struggles of the war, been among the firmest supporters of the financial schemes of the administration. In the House of Commons, an attempt was made to shew that the tax in question, as originally proposed, was to be exactly co-existent with the war, and that, therefore, a breach of faith would be incurred in any measure for protracting its operation. This was, however, very satisfactorily combatted by Mr Vansittart, who shewed, that, on the first proposal of the tax by Mr Pitt, it was expressly stated, that it should continue one year of peace for every year of war during which it, should have existed; that the Lord Henry Petty had, when in office, entertained no idea of the tax being necessarily to close immediately on the conclusion of a peace; and that no pledge of that kind had been given by the present administration on the resumption of the tax last year. The necessity of the measure was attacked with greater keenness, and, as it would seem, defended with less power. In

the midst of a discussion of great warmth, the question was loudly called for, and the continuance of the tax was lost by a majority of 238 to 201. On the succeeding evening, the Chancellor of the Exchequer rose and stated, that, as his whole plans must be changed in consequence of the loss of this great tax, he must of course have recourse to loans; and that as the amount of these would not be materially affected by any minor demands, he would give up the war malt duties also. The prospect of getting rid of these burdens, contributed, in a powerful manner, to sooth the feelings of the afflicted classes of the community. But it is at the best extremely doubtful, whether, in the end, the continuance of the property-tax might not have pressed upon their necessities in a manner more equable than any of the substitutes which were either at the time proposed by the opposition, or subsequently adopted by the minister. It may be extremely fitting that the vanities, luxuries, and even mere conveniences enjoyed by individuals, should pay tax to the commonwealth; but it seems unworthy of the cause, that to these alone the contributions should be restricted. In the propertytax, as it was levied, there was probably much unnecessary and unwise severity; but something in the shape of a

property-tax, is the only impost which can reach effectually the mean-spirited and the unpatriotic, the absentee and the miser.

On the 27th of May, the House of Commons resolved itself into a committee of ways and means. The Chancellor of the Exchequer prefaced his account of the public resources for the year, with a statement that these had been essentially altered in consequence of the abandonment of the property-tax. His first proposal was, that the committee should accept of a proposition for the Bank of England,

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