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yourself by an animated defence of the Militia system, and "congratulated the country that such an admirable force was about to be extended."

In your argument in favour of the institution of Fencible corps, you took another opportunity of expressing your warm approbation of the Militia system, by ascribing to the former the advantages of the latter, "for they partook more of the nature of a militia than of regular troops."

In November 1795, you extolled the project of raising the Volunteers corps," because it went farther than former measures, and made THE FORCE APPLICABLE TO THE DEFENCE OF THE WHOLE COUNTRY." I could recount numberless other instances wherein you volunteered your sentiments by passing the strongest panegyrics, upon those institutions. But these will suffice for the present. It is really so difficult to ascertain when you are in earnest, that I feel at a loss which to believe your former or your present opinions. However, it will be proper to notice the latter. to have said, that if the Militia were actuated by the same spirit, and influenced by the same attachment which united and impelled the Lord and

You are reported to

* Debate on Wednesday, March, 16, 1803.

bis vassals in the times of chivalry, some benefit might be derived from that union and that impulse. But the relations that subsisted between the militiaman and his officer, as the Militia was now constituted, were extremely different" therefore, we are to conclude that no benefit can in your esti mation, be derived from the Militia. So then, we must return once more to the days of Chivalry!

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Now, Sir, I am astonished that a man of your knowledge and reading, should have committed yourself by such an untimely, degrading, and improper comparison. What personal attachment exists between a captain in the regulars and his company! What impulse can the latter receive from being under the command of an officer whom (as often happens) they may not have known, or even seen before the eve of battle! Docs the eulogist of troops of the line believe that they are less valorous, less united, less high-spirited, less efficient in battle than the feudal Lord and his retainers! Who conquered for us in Holland! Who planted on the burning sands of Egypt, and dedicated to their country an imperishable pillar of glory, amidst the mouldering ruins of its ani cient magnificence ?-I call upon your powers of invention, when next you rise in the House, to

account for that invisible spring of action, which led to such exalted deeds of

prowess, and to explain its inferiority to that propelling motive, which urged the vassal by an oath of fealty, to fight under the banner of his Lord! You ought not thus to sport with all those honourable feelings, those invigorating principles of fredom and loyalty, which at this day burn in the heart of the British soldier-Mr. Windham should be the last man in the kingdom to revile an institution, from which, when he was minister, thousands of brave fellows volunteered in their country's cause, and were dispatched in waggon loads to fill up the ranks of the Regulars, and share their fortune in a foreign land. Ah! Is it come to this! Is this the return which native bravery, and patriotism meet with, from a man, who ought daily to ask forgiveness of his country, for having broken up the best disciplined and most beautiful Militia in the world; who ought daily to fall upon his knees before his God, and be thankful that he is an Englishman!

The British soldier is the subject of one Lord only, HIS KING. He is the member of a free community, governed by one rule of justice, which dispenses its protection to him equally with the proudest peer of the realm. Amidst all the hard

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ships of the field, he is conscious that his fatigues and dangers are demanded by his dountry, not by the petty tyrant ofd his village. In the bloodstained trench, or tented field, he feels that he is a free-born subject of a free state, and glories that he is entrusted with the care of its destinies. No capricious motives to gratify, no personal resentments to avenge, no lordly oppression to establish, drag him to the dusty plain. He goes forth to battle a volunteer in his country's cause, he is conscious that it is his country's battle, and therefore his own concern; that he is her representative only; that in performing the duties of a soldier, he is discharging the duties of his own choice and that when the shouts of victory rend the air, it is Britain alone that conquers. When the trials of war have ceased, he returns into the bosom of society, and triumphs in the possession of those altars, laws, and liberties, which his válour has contributed to secure. These, Sir, are 'causes of union and impulse which never inspired the vassal; this the motive of attachment which he never felt. They exist only where freedom is a national inheritance, solemnly recognized by laws of liberty. For, as the illustrious commentator on our laws has observed, in the manly lan guage of our island freedom, "no man should take

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up arms, but with a view to defend his country, and its laws: he puts not off the citizen when he - enters the camp; but, it is because he is a citizen, and would wish to continue so, that he makes himself for a while a soldier *. 1996 Aww. mod-cont

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These principles do not appear to have been - uppermost in your mind, when, (to use your own -words on another occasion)off in the eagerness of debate you employed expressions with inconsider Pate warmth," against the noblest establishment of -your country. Against such a formidable enemy -as we have to contend with, you turned disdainfully from the grand but awful sufficiency of an embattled nation of freemen, and would have opposed in their stead the chivalrous discipline of lords and their retainers, breaking from the ranks, and challenging their enemies to single combat, perhaps to box, as an illustration of indi vidual dignity. One principle more you should have added, as the champion of feudal times, and have proposed to have given our enemies fair play, according to the rules of chivalry.

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* Black. Com. vol. i. p. 395, 4to. edit.

+"Boxing is connected with ideas of personal merit and individual dignity. Mr. Windham's speech, May 1802.

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