ment of the musket and bayonet; yet let us consider, that to prepare to invade this kingdom with an army superior to that we always keep on foot, or even to that part of it which we always keep in or near London, must require a great many weeks, if not months: such a preparation we shall always have notice of, if we are not infatuated, at least four or five weeks before it can be finished: upon the first notice of it, we must suppose, that our sovereign will order the militia of some of the counties at least to be drawn out: from the time they are drawn out they may be exercised every day; and by such daily exercise they may in three or four weeks be fully instructed, and made complete masters of every part of military knowledge, in which they were before deficient, so as to be equal in knowledge and dexterity with any mercenary troops whatever; and as most of our militia will always have some stake to fight for, we may reasonably suppose, that they will exceed them in courage and resolution. The militia of those counties alone which lie upon the southeast, south, and south-west coasts of this island, amount to above 20,000 men, according to what is proposed by the Bill now before us if we had last winter had such a militia established, well disciplined, and ready to be drawn out upon the first notice, I believe, the French would not so much as have pretended a design to invade us, for that they really had such a design I very much doubt. But they would not so much as have pretended it, because it could not have given us any alarm, or suspended the execution of any other warlike measure we had resolved on, as with the additions we had made to our army, we could have met them in a few days after their landing, with an army of regulars and militia much superior to any they could possibly embark; and I must here observe, that if such a Bill as this had been passed into a law 20 years ago, much greater and more formidable additions might have been made to our regu lar army: My lords, this consideration alone should make us pass the Bill now before us. Even supposing that the militia to be established by this Bill could not be made fit to encounter foreign veterans, yet it will certainly enable us with more ease to augment our army, and the additional troops or men will be sooner fit for service. In 20 or 30 years all the common men in the kingdom, that is to say, all such as cannot afford to give any thing to a man to serve for them, will have passed what I may call a three years apprenticeship in the militia. Surely, a man who has passed such an apprenticeship will be more ready to list in the army, than a man who never smelt powder in his life; and a man who has for three years been drawing up in rank and file, and performing all the manual exercise of the musket and bayonet almost every Sunday, will be sooner, after listing, made fit for service in the army, than a man who never heard of the terms rank and file, nor ever handled a musket or bayonet before his listing in that service. Nay, I have heard from old serjeants in our army, that they have of ten been some days before they could inspire a country looby with courage enough to present and fire his musket; and yet that very man has afterwards become a good and a brave soldier. My lords, the passing of this Bill into a law must therefore be of eminent service to our regular army, and must render it much more formidable when we have occasion to make great additions to it upon any sudden emergency; and this alone should make us despise the small expence which the nation, or any private man may thereby be put to; for it is proposed, that the public should be at some expence in providing arms, and likewise in granting some reward to those that do serve, and will accept of it, which expence must be provided for by a new Bill to be passed next session, as it could not be provided for in this, because if it had, we could have made no amendment to it. This was not, therefore, an oversight, but an omission designed, in order to leave room for such amendments as we might think proper, and consequently those lords who now object to the form of the Bill, are the more to blame for not offering those objections upon the second reading, or in the committee, when their objections might have been all removed by amendments, or at least such of them as had been thought material, which to me, indeed, none of them seem to be. This, my lords, is the true reason why no provision was made in the Bill for the expence that must attend the militia pro. posed by it; and when that expence comes to be considered, I am sure it will appear to be a mere trifle, especially when compared with the expence which experience has taught us we must otherwise be at, for preventing an insolent and en croaching neighbour's threatening us, at every turn, with an invasion; for this can no otherwise be done, but by keeping up a much more numerous army than we ever did heretofore; or by calling in a large body of foreign auxiliaries, as often as that neighbour may please to canton a considerable body of troops upon the coast opposite to this island; both which would be attended, not only with an insupportable expence, but with the greatest danger to our constitution and liberties; and this leads me to consider that danger which, it is pretended, our liberties may be exposed to, by the militia proposed by this Bill. it must necessarily extend to all, or most of the poor in the kingdom. For illustrating this I shall first suppose, that the reward to be given by the public is to be so small that no man will serve for another, without some additional reward from him for whom he serves: in this case all the poor men in the kingdom must serve in person because they could not spare to hire any to serve for them. And next I shall suppose, that the reward to be given by the public is to be so high, as of itself to be sufficient to make a poor man fond of serving for any man chosen by lot to serve, in order to entitle himself to the public reward: does not every one see that in this case all the poor, who are chosen by lot, will serve personally; and that the rich, who are chosen by lot, will give this profitable employment to such poor men as they like best, as we must suppose that every rich man will have several poor men applying to him for the favour. Thus, my lords, it is evident, that the military discipline would not be confined to any certain number of poor men, but would extend to all or most of the poor men in the kingdom, that might be fit for service; and if our government should at any time attempt to make use of the poor militia men then in service, for overturning our liberties, all the poor men who had been in service, and who would of course be equally masters of military discipline, would unite under the command of some ambitious rich men who had formerly been officers against such a government. In such a case, I shall grant, that our liberties would be in danger, which ever side prevailed; but the contest would probably be determined against the government, as it was in the reign of Charles the first, and this probability will always deter our government, for the time being, if it has a grain of wisdom, from making the attempt. My lords, to find a foundation for this pretended danger, it is supposed that all the men of property in this nation are absolutely void of public spirit, and without any intention or desire of ever assisting in the defence of their country, should it ever happen to be brought into danger, and consequently, that no man of any property will serve personally in this militia, but will hire some low abandoned fellow to serve as his substitute, by which means our militia will soon come to consist of 60,000 poor low fellows, who will make a trade of serving for others, and who will be the only men that are to be disciplined by this act. Now, my lords, if I could suppose that all the men of property in this nation are so void of any regard for the honour, happiness, or security of their country, I should give myself very little trouble about the liberty they enjoy, because I should be of opinion, that they neither deserved it, nor would it be possible to preserve it. A man that will not fight for his liberty, I am sure, does not deserve it, and a man who is no way qualified, cannot fight for it if he would. But I have, thank God! a better opinion of my countrymen, and therefore I expect, that if this Bill be passed into a law, we shall soon see every young man of property in this kingdom serving his term in the militia, and impatient for its coming My lords, the danger of this attempt to his turn, perhaps all of them making in-will always, therefore, be one strong bar terest with such of their seniors as happen against it, and the impracticability of the to be chosen by lot, for leave to serve as scheme will be another; for it is of such a their substitutes. nature that it cannot be executed by deBut suppose, my lords, I should be dis-grees: it must be executed all at once: appointed in this pleasing expectation: suppose our men of property, both young and old, should all, or most of them, choose to serve by substitute, yet the whole of the supposition on the other side is impossible. The military discipline would indeed be confined to the poor, but then the qualified deputy lieutenants and militia officers must at once be removed, and unqualified men put into their room; and at the same time a stop must be put to the meeting of parliament, and to the sitting of any of the courts in Westminster-hall; because, if any of the latter should be al lowed to sit, prosecutions would immediately be set on foot against every unqualified man, who had accepted and began to act as deputy lieutenant or officer in the militia, for recovering the penalties thereby incurred, one moiety of which is by this Bill to belong to the prosecutor. And as the militia is not by the Bill to be drawn out, until after the occasion for doing so has been communicated to parliament, this will be a third bar to any such attempt; because the drawing out of this militia, without any such communication, would give an immediate alarum to the whole nation, and set every man, not engaged in the plot, upon providing for his defence. Nor can the necessity of this communication ever be of any bad consequence, because an insurrection, or invasion, which may be easily prevented or defeated by our standing army, can never occasion the drawing out of the militia; and a more formidable insurrection or invasion, can never be so sudden, or unforeseen, as not to give time for the meeting of parliament. should prevail among the people, may it not be of the most dangerous consequence to our present happy establishment, and to the illustrious family now upon our throne? It certainly will; for the Jacobites will industriously ascribe this design chiefly to our sovereign; and as the principal opposers of the Bill are known to be in high favour with his majesty, this unjust imputation will, I fear, gain too much credit among the people without doors. Therefore, if the objections to the form of this Bill were much more material than they really are, out of regard to our present happy establishment, and to the royal family now upon our throne, we should be cautious of rejecting it at such a critical conjuncture. But I shall now conclude, my lords; but lest what has been mentioned from the Roman history should have more weight than it ought to have, I must beg leave to make some remarks upon that part of their history, which I could not miss looking into upon this occasion. During their monarchy, and for some years after the estaMy lords, I hope I have shewn, that it blishment of their common wealth, their is possible to establish a well disciplined armies could consist of none but men of and serviceable militia, even by the Bill some property, because they gave neither now before us; that the expence will be pay nor subsistence to their soldiers, no but a mere trifle in comparison with the not even in time of war; for Livy expressexpence we must be put to, by any other ly tells us, that the first time they gave method of providing for our security, and any pay to their soldiers, was after the that the militia, proposed by this Bill, can siege and demolition of the rich city of never be of any dangerous consequence Anxur, which happened in the 319th year to our constitution or liberties. But, my after the building of the city, and conselords, when we talk of danger, let us con- quently above a 100 years after the esta sider the danger of rejecting this Bill. blishment of the common-wealth. By dear bought experience the whole na- after they began to give pay to their soltion is now become sensible of the neces-diers in time of war, they certainly had in sity of our having such a militia establish- their armies freemen of no property, or at ed. By the want of such a militia we have least many such as were not worth 11,000 been prevented from sending such suc-æra, and consequently were of the sixth cours to our countrymen in America, as class instituted by Servius Tullius; for we ought to have done: at least this will, they would not certainly have listed slaves I know, be pretended as an excuse for our in their army, after buying them at the fatal neglect: by the want of it, we have public expence from their masters, as they been obliged to bring over a body of Ger- did after the battle of Cannæ, if there had man troops and by the want of it we been a sufficient number of freemen in the have been obliged to petition his najesty city that were fit for service, and the histo bring over a body of his electoral torian expressly says, that this was occatroops. If this Bill should be rejected, sioned by a scarcity of freemen. As to what will be said without doors? Will it what the historian means by the word Es, not be said, that there is a party in this in his history of Servius Tullius, it is more House who are for continuing us in the the business of a critic than mine. It is same weak and unarmed condition, on very true, that the denomination of money, purpose that we may be obliged, as often which among the Romans was called As, as we are in danger, real or chimerical, to at first meant a pound weight of brass, as bring over and maintain a body of German our pound sterling at first meant a pound or electoral troops? And if this opinion weight of silver; but that word came after wards to mean a denomination of money among them, which did not exceed, in value, our three farthings, and consequently in the division of the people established by Servius Tullius, if this was the historian's meaning, the sixth class of people, who were to be immunes militia, consisted of those whose whole substance did not amount to 34l. 7s. 6d. and that this was the historian's meaning I am apt to believe, because it is not probable that, in a city which had not been built much about 200 years, there should be any considerable number of people that were worth 7,500l. each, which would have been the case, if the historian had meant by 100,000 æris, 100,000 pound weight of brass, and that brass had been near about the same value it is at present. But as I have already shewn, that the Romans afterwards listed poor freemen as well as rich in their armies, and consequently that among them the poor as well as the rich must have been bred to military discipline, this dispute about the historian's meaning can signify nothing in the present debate, nor can any thing in the Roman history be made an argument against the Bill now before us, which, I hope, will be passed into a law. The question being put, whether this Bill, with the Amendments, shall pass? It was resolved in the negative by 59 against 23. And the Bill was ordered to be rejected. Mr. Speaker Onslow's Speech to the King on presenting the Money Bills.*] May 27. When the Money Bills were presented at the close of the Session, Mr. Speaker Onslow addressed his Majesty as follows: "May it please your Majesty; "Your faithful Commous, justly sensible of the blessings they have enjoyed under your happy reign, in just indignation at every attempt to disturb it, have exerted themselves, to the utmost of their abilities, to support your majesty in the just war, which the ambition and perfidy of France have obliged you to enter into, by giving, for the service of this year ordinary and extraordinary, ten millions, beside a vote of credit to answer any unforeseen emergency. * From the Gentleman's Magazine. [VOL. XV.C "They beg leave most humbly to say, they hope the sword you have so bravely drawn, and they so effectually supported, will be entrusted only in brave, capable, and honest hands; that so the naval, the natural strength of England, will make a figure, will do service, as much greater, as it is exalted higher than ever before. "They apprehend, the present critical juncture convinces, that alliances on the continent, as they are unnatural, so they must ever be prejudicial to the true interest of England; that there is no gratitude to be expected from, no dependence to be had on such allies; allies, who though saved, supported, subsisting by the blood and treasure of this kingdom for more than an age, have taken the opportunity of the first prospect of present profit, to break through every tie. "Not discouraged by the ingratitude of allies, nor the ambition of enemies, they have, with pleasure, beheld the sword drawn to vindicate your honour, the honour and interest of England; convinced, and proud to let all the world see, that England is able to fight her own battles, to stand by her own natural strength, against all her enemies. "Though ever attached to your majesty's person, ever at ease under your just government, they cannot forbear taking notice of some circumstances in the present situation of affairs, which nothing but the confidence in your justice, your love to the people devoted to you, could hinder from alarming their most serious apprehensions; and to whom should they make complain, but to their protector, their their fears known? To whom should they guardian, and their father?-Subsidies to foreign princes, when already burdened with a debt scarce to be borne, cannot but be severely felt; an army of foreign troops, a thing unprecedented, unheard of, unknown, brought into England, cannot but alarm; but still they depend, still they confide in your majesty, and only beg leave most humbly to say, they hope that their burden may be lightened; their fears removed as soon as possible; and, in the mcan time, that the sword of these foreigners should not be entrusted a moment out of your own hand, to any other person whatsoever." The King's Speech at the Close of the Session.] May 27. His majesty put an end to the session with the following Speech to both Houses: "My Lords and Gentlemen; "After so long and unwearied application to the public business, it is reasonable that I should give you some recess: I must, at the same time, return you my hearty thanks for the vigorous and effectual support you have given me, in maintaining that just and national cause in which I am engaged. King came to the House of Peers and opened the Session with the following Speech to both Houses: "My Lords, and Gentlemen, "I have called you together in a conjuncture which highly requires the deliberation, advice and assistance of parliament; and I trust that (under the guidance of Divine Providence) union and firmness in my affectionate people will "The injuries and hostilities which have been for some time committed by the French, against my dominions and sub-carry me with honour through all diffijects, are now followed by the actual in-culties; and finally vindicate the dignity of my crown, and its indubitable rights, against the ancient enemy of these kingdoms. vasion of the island of Minorca, which stands guaranteed to me by all the great powers in Europe, and in particular by the French king. I have, therefore, found myself obliged, in vindication of the honour of my crown, and of the rights of my people, to declare war in form against France: I rely on the Divine protection, and the vigorous assistance of my faithful subjects, in so just a cause. Gentlemen of the House of Commons; "I return you my hearty thanks for the readiness and dispatch with which you have granted me such large supplies; you may depend on their being strictly applied to the good purposes to which they were given. 66 My Lords, and Gentlemen; "Nothing has given me more inward satisfaction than the confidence which you repose in me it is the most acceptable return you could make me : and, you may be assured, shall be made use of only for your good: the preservation of your religion, liberties, and independency, is, and always shall be, my great aim, and I trust you will not be wanting to yourselves." The Parliament was then prorogued to the 18th of June: and was afterwards further prorogued to the 2d of December. FOURTH SESSION OF THE America cannot but constitute a main ob"The succour and preservation of ject of my attention and solicitude; and the growing dangers to which our colonies may stand exposed, from our late losses in those parts, demand resolutions of vigour and dispatch. must have the chief place in my thoughts; "An adequate and firm defence at home and, in this great view, I have nothing so satisfaction may remain in my people. much at heart, as that no ground of dis "To this end a national militia, planned and regulated with equal regard to the just rights of my crown and people, may, in time, become one good resource, in case of general danger; and I recommend the framing of such a militia to the care and diligence of my parliament. the calamities which, in consequence of "The unnatural union of councils abroad, this unhappy conjunction, may, by irruptions of foreign armies into the empire, shake its constitutions, overturn its system, and threaten oppression to the Protestant interest there, are events which tion, and have fixed the eyes of Europe on must sensibly affect the minds of this nathis new and dangerous crisis. "The body of my electoral troops, which I ordered hither at the desire of my parliament, I have directed to return to my dominions in Germany; relying ELEVENTH PARLIAMENT with pleasure on the spirit and zeal of my OF GREAT BRITAIN. The King's Speech on Opening the Session.*] December 2, 1756. The "The change of administration was arranged before the meeting of parliament. The duke of Newcastle, who had so long directed the helm of government, was compelled people, in defence of my person and realm. "Gentlemen of the House of Commons, "I will order the proper estimates to be laid in due time before you: and I rely on your wisdom, that you will prefer more to retire, and his place filled by William, fourth duke of Devonshire, who inherited the sound sense and integrity, as well as the honours of his father. Notwithstanding the repugnance |