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CHAP. Χ.

Sate of the Coalition.-Motion in the House of Commons for augmenting the Number of Seamen and Marines. - Army Estimates. The Conduct and the Result of the prefent War. Loan of Four Millions to the Emperor-Difcuffions on Continental Alliances. Statement of the Force, requisite for the Service of 1795.-New Taxes.

N the mean time, daily intelligence was arriving of the rapid andirrefiftible progress of the French in Holland, which might now be confidered as totally loft to the confederacy. The inhabitants of the Seven United Provinces were never, indeed, fincerely cordial in the cause of the coalition, looking upon themfelves as facrificed to the interests of the house of Orange, by whose influence and authority, the people complained, they had been forced into the present war.

In order to fupply, if possible, the place of fo confiderable a member of the coalition, no other method appeared than that of increasing the force to be employed against the French, by numbers proportionable to those which were furnished by the Dutch, previously to their reduction by France. To this purpole, minifters found it neceffary to prepare, by times, the funds that would be requifite to keep the coalition together; and to prevent the whole weight of the victorious enemy from falling upon Britain, without alliances to Cvert it.

The opinion of the British pub, at this juncture, was, that, being involved in a ruinous war, it was

indispensible to exert the full strength of the national resources, in order to extricate the kingdom from the dangers that threatened it. Discussions on its justice and neceffity, as well as on its judicious or imprudent management, should be referred to a future opportunity; and all the vigour and abilities of the different parties, that had divided the nation, ought to unite, on this preffing occafion, for its defence, against the formidable enemy that now threatened it with a destruction which would become unavoidable, without a fincere and spirited union at home. This alone could fave the country; no dependence ought, in prudence, to be placed upon foreign afsistance; our allies wanted either power or inclination to make fufficient efforts to refift France. The truth was, that they relied upon Britain much more than Britain could rely upon them; nor was even their good will to this country unquestionable. Its fuperior state of profperity, and the perpetual obligation to have recourse to its finances, were circumstances highly offenfive to their pride, and excited their envy much more than they conciliated their gratitude and attachment. The in[M3] tended tended desertion of Pruffia and of Spain was well known, and the apprehenfion of their changing fides not less suspected. In this complication of difficulties stood the only remaining members of the coalition, Auftria and England, when the minifters of this latter were fummoned to call forth their refources for the joint fupport of both.

The house of commons met on the fecond of January, in a committee of fupply. Mr. Fox, who foresaw the large demands that would be made, required notice when the loan would be proposed, that the house might have a due attendance. The imperial loan was an object of dilagrecable fpeculation to all parties, and they felt with disgust the neceffity of fupporting a power that had drawn this country into his own quarrel, and whose readiness to abandon it, the moment he could procure tolerable terms, no intelligent perfon doubted. This neceffarily created a reluctance to answer his calls for fresh supplies, which, as foon as granted, might be converted to quite other purposes than those for which he should obtain them. The cafe of Pruffia was exactly in point: twelve hundred thousand pounds were acknowledged, by the minifter in the house, to have been advanced to the Pruffian monarch; who employed that immenfe fum in executing his defigns on Poland.

On the feventh of January, a motion was made, by admiral Gardner, for an augmentation in the number of seamen and marines. The fervice of the navy would this year require a proportion of eighty-five thousand of the former, and fifteen thoufand of the latter. A remark

able discussion took place, on this occafion, upon the construction of the English ships of war. Mr. Robinson asserted their inferiority to the French, in the circumstance of quick failing. Captain Berkley admitted they were better built, but denied their failing fafter; the French models he acknowledged to be fuperior to the English; but these had the fuperiority in workmanship. Admiral Gardner, however, allowed the quicker failing of the French; and ascribed their fuperior conftruction to the premiums given, by their government, for the best models, which were regularly fubmitted to the examination and decifion of the academy of sciences. But the veffels taken from them had lately been the means of confiderable improvements in the building of our own.

In confequence of this discussion, it was observed, by Mr. Fox, that the knowledge and experience of the people of this country in naval affairs ought, long ago, to have enabled them to furpals their French rivals, in a point of fuch importance to the honour and security of the nation. It was neither creditable to the ministry, nor the admiralty, to have fo long suffered this degrading inferiority. The fooner it was remedied the better, at this critical period, which required uncommon exertions of skill and valour in every every active department, but principally in the naval, on which the fafety and glory of the nation fo vifibly depended. He complained that, confidering the decided fuperiority of the British navy, its atchievements had not been adequate to the expectations which the nation had a right to form. Our ex ertions at fea had, he noticed, been greatly

greatly impeded, by the extensive efforts lately made to strengthen the service at land. The bounties given to recruit the army took off numbers of able men from the navy; on which, however, every judicious man placed more reliance against an invafion of this country, than upon its land-forces. The incessant threats of the enemy ought to render government peculiarly folicitous to provide, in time, the means to fruftrate them. The navy was the bulwark of the realm, and it were criminal, at the present juncture, not to pay it a much higher degree of attention than military operations on the continent; which the experience of three campaigns had shewn to be ineffectual for the main object of the contest, the reducing France to fubmit to our own terms.

Mr. Dundas, in vindication of ministry, stated, that no efforts had ever been made superior, if equal, to those which had taken place in the naval department of the king dom, fince the commencement of the present war. The number of feamen, at that period, amounted only to fixteen thousand, but was, at this day, no less than ninety-five thousand. He was convinced, from good information, that our acting force at fea was double to that of the enemy: much, he observed, had been faid in favour of the superior skill of the enemy in naval architecture; but we were confefledly the fuperior in action, and while we retained this fuperiority, the collateral advantages of construction and expeditious failing would be of little avail to the enemy.

Mr. Sheridan made several obferrations on the affertions of Mr. Dundas; he particularly noticed the difficulty of overtaking vessels

so much more advantageously constructed for quick failing than ours, as the French seemed to be generally acknowleged; and reprobated with much severity the neglect of government in not accelerating the improvements, necessary to remedy so essential a defect.

Mr. Pitt confest that extraordinary efforts had been made by the French to increase and strengthen their navy; but, like their exertions at land, they would not be of a durable nature: they were too hurried and precipitate to last. He proceeded from this topic to the general state of that country; the vigour and resources of which he represented to be on the decline. Herein he was contradicted by general Tarleton, who defcribed both as very far from being exhausted; and their ingenuity as incessantly on the stretch to profit by every opportunity that occurred. Their system of acting had, since the fall of Robespierre, undergone material alterations: convinced that severity and terror were not so effectual as lenity and conciliation, they had wisely adopted these where ever they could be applicable. Hence the averfion formerly excited, by the merciless proceedings of their late government, had given way to fentiments less hostile and repugnant to the principles they were labouring to establish. The treatment of their prisoners, in particular, since that time, had been much more humane, and they feemed, upon the whole, studious to acquire a character of mildness and moderation: all these circumstances should be taken into confideration. When we animadverted on the present state of that nation, as they had been lately described with jul[M4] tice, tice, as ferocious and fanguinary, they ought, by the same rule, to be represented, at present, in more favourable colours. It was, by treating each other with equity, that nations at varience drew nearer to reconciliation, and not by indulging in reciprocal defamation, which only tended to eternize enmity.

In answer to some strictures, on the conduct of the admiralty, that were thrown out in the sequel of this debate, it was obferved, by admiral Gardner, that, in the course of the last year, applications were made for one hundred and eight convoys, which had been accordingly granted. This fervice had employed one hundred and forty fships, exclufively of fixteen conftantly cruizing on the coaft, to protect its trade.

Mr. Lambton took this opportunity to notice the efforts of the French, to put their navy on a formidable footing. Models of the various parts and timbers, proper for the conftruction of ships of the line, were fent to the feveral provinces, where wood for fuch purposes was procurable. Here the labouring people were directed in what manner to cut down and prepare the trees felected for ship-building, which were conveyed, in the rough, to the dock-yards, there to be completed by the ship-wrights, and put together with all poflible difpatch. By this expeditions method of proceeding, they would be able, according to their cal culation, to add fixty new ships to their fleet in a very short time, Such a process, in their conftruction, would not certainly admit of much folidity and duration; but these were not wanted: the quan

tity, not the quality of the ships, for immediate service, was the only object in request. Such being the plans and intention of the enemy, government could not be too anxious in preparing to meet the numerous marine that might fo shortly be created, through these extraordinary exertions. In consequence of these various difcuffions, one hundred thousand feamen were unanimouflv voted for the service of the present year.

Thefe

On the 21st of January, Mr. Windham presented to the house the estimates of the army. amounted, including the regulars, the militia, and the new levies, to one hundred and fifty thousand men; a force that was deemed amply fufficient for the prefervation of internal tranquillity, and the protection of the kingdom against all enterprizes from abroad. The expence of maintaining it was computed at fix millions fix hundred and fifty-two thousand pounds. He moved, that the army-eftablishment, for the present year, should confift of the number ftated.

General Tarleton severely reprehended the methods used for the ordering and recruiting of the army. Veteran officers thereby were loaded with heavy expences, to which, if inadequate, they were liable to have raw young men fet over them. He cited fome precedents of promotions of this nature, equally offenfive to officers of long standing, and detrimental to the service. Hence, he faid, the recruiting business had fallen into the hands of crimps and school-boys. The avarice of the former and the inaptitude of the latter, was accordingly vi

of complete security at home, which could be done only by keeping a formidable army on foot. The expences arifing from this necessary measure were, doubtless, great, but the dangers thereby averted were much greater. True it was that the confederacy had fuffered feverely; but this country not only maintained its fuperiority on the feas, but had, in the midst of every pressure occafioned by the war, encreased both its commerce and its resources, in a manner that opened the most pro missing prospect of being able to carry it on with the utmost vigour, and that afforded the ftrongest presumption of terminating it finally to our honour.

fible in the individuals whom they enlifted. He next adverted to the expence of maintaining the army; the fiatement of which he cenfured, as not fufficiently explicit. To the enormous fum already mentioned, were ftill to be added, those wanted for the support of the ordnance, and for the extraordinaries, to say nothing, of the immense fubfidies to foreign powers. These, he observed, necessarily abforbed a fatal proportion of the money that ought to be reserved for the various expeditions that employed our own people, whose numbers, from that cause, had proved inadequate to the services on which they were fent. Hence, it was, that instead of ten thoufand men, fir Charles Gray was placed at the head of only half that number, to reduce the French West Indies, that were provided with a larger force to defend, than he to attack them. He then reviewed the events of the campaign upon the continent, where he afcribed many of the disasters that had befallen the coalition, to the perfidious conduct of our allies, as well as to the avarice with which they economised, for their own purposes, the vast sums of money which they received from our profufion and credulity. What-a situation that intitled them, with

ever fucceffes might attend the arms of the coalition, in the next campaign, they would never compenfate the misfortunes of the last, In answer to general Tarleton, and to Mr. Hufssey, who seconded him with arguments of much the fame import, it was replied by Mr. Pitt, that, in order to enable the navy to make a proper impression on our foes abroad, we ought to place ourselves in a state

To these assertions, Mr. Fox oppofed the continual failure of every attempt of the coalition, and the perpetual success attending the arms of the French, in all their undertakings.. To speak in a style of exultation, after experiencing such a feries of calamities, was, he faid, to infult the understanding of those who heard him. But what was now the object, he proposed, by perfifting in this unfortunate contest? it could not furely be the reduction of the French, who were now in

out vanity, to assume that style of fuperiority which it so ill became the minister to affect. A counter-revolution was no longer to be expected; the powers of which the coalition confifted had been so completely humbled by their defeats, that they did not seem to harbour the least idea of that tendency. It would, therefore, be temerity, not fortitude, in us to continue a quarrel on our fingle strength,

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