a long and varied course of public measures and public conduct, in contradiction to the opinions held or expressed by any gentleman, on various occasions, in the course of that public career. No man had a right to call on another for any approbation of that nature, and he felt that every man so attempted to be called upon, had an undoubted right to complain. In viewing the character of the deceased, no one could ascribe to him any low attachment to pecuniary gain; his mind was above such considerations; his conceptions had too much grandeur to admit of any thing of that kind. He did not think that any dangerous precedent was set by this measure. If these debts had been contracted by profusion and excess, by dissipation and vain luxuries, they might admit of a question. On the contrary, they were contracted by no lavish expenditure, no useless ostentation. The great character of Mr. Pitt's mind was too sterling to descend to those means of prodigality; and he even neglected what, in these times, was due to the situation he filled. He had an entire superiority to any thing of the nature of affectation. His salary was not enough to provide the indulgencies fit for his station, and the consequence was seen in the incurring of these debts. Insufficiency of salary, want of pecuniary attention, and the necessary impositions to which he was exposed, must have combined to embarrass his affairs. He therefore considered, that, in the part the House were now called upon to act, they were not indulging themselves in an improper sentiment of liberality, nor catching at any transient reputation of

magnanimity, nor wasting the public money; nor should he think that the case, even were they to make some provision for those who were most near and dear to the deceased.

The motion was assented to by Mr. Ponsonby, Lord Folkstone, Mr. Rose, the Marquis of Douglas, Mr. Fox, and Mr. Canning. Mr. William Smith opposed it. The question was put and carried, without a division,

List of His Majesty's Ministers appointed in February 1806.

First Lord of the Treasury.

-(Prime Minister.)

Lord Howick (late Mr. Grey) First Lord of the Admiralty.

Rt. Hon. Nicholas Vansittart

John King, Esq.

Sir William Grant

Sir Arthur Pigott

Sir Samuel Romilly

President of the Board of
Controul for the Affairs of
India.

Chancellor of the Duchy of

Lancaster.

President of the Board of
Trade.
Secretary at War.
Treasurer of the Navy.
Joint Paymasters-General.

Joint Postmasters-General.

Secretaries of the Treasury.
Master of the Rolls.
Attorney-General.
Solicitor-General.

Persons in the Ministry of Ireland.

Duke of Bedford

Rt. Hon. George Ponsonby

Rt. Hon. William Elliot

Lord Lieutenant.

Lord High Chancellor.

Chief Secretary.

Rt. Hon. Sir John Newport

Chancellor of the Exchequer.

MILITARY MEASURES.

April 3, 1806.

MR. WINDHAM introduced his measures for improving the Military Establishment of the country in the following speech:

SIR,

The measures which I am about to propose are little more than the application of those general principles, which I have frequently had occasion to urge to the house, when questions connected with the state of our Military Establishments have made the subject of its deliberations. The knowledge that such ideas existed in the minds of many of my honourable colleagues, as well as of myself, naturally produced an opinion that some change conformably to these ideas was likely to be the consequence of our appointment to office. And, so far, the expectation was reasonable and just. But, when it was further supposed, that this change was to be immediate, that our appointment to office, and the adoption of measures meant as a permanent foundation for our Military Establishments, was to be one and the same thing, such an expectation was neither warranted by any thing said by myself

or by any of my Honourable Friends, either subsequently to our coming into office or previous to it, nor countenanced, in any degree, by the nature of the proceeding itself. For, since what we proposed. had more for its object to place the service on a right footing in future, than to devise expedients for meeting the present danger, the measures in view were precisely of that sort in which care was of more consequence than time; in which it was more expedient that whatever was done should be done rightly, than that it should be done speedily.—It is surprising therefore, that the Honourable Gentlemen opposite do not see, that in calling so loudly for new measures, they are pronouncing a condemnation on those heretofore taken; that in carrying so high their expectations of change, when no change was announced from this side of the House, they betray a conviction that things had been left in a state in which change was absolutely necessary. have said, and say still, that the Military Establishments of the country are on a false and vicious state, that they stand on a footing on which they cannot stand long; but I have never said, that they could not stand for an instant; that something must be done, no matter what, or the fabric must fall to the ground. It is the Honourable Gentlemen who are talking this language. There is an expression known in the army, applicable to what happens sometimes under an unlucky field-officer, and is called "clubbing the battalion," by which is meant, throwing the battalion into such complete confusion, so mixing the front with the rear, the flanks with the centre, the right with the

I