wait till the regiment was new cloathed, and when he had got his new cloathes on, he would then demand his discharge; and thus the colonel might be put to the expense, not only of recruiting, but of new cloathing the greater part of his regiments the second time.

"With regard to the changing of quarters too, this bill, if passed into a law, would be attended with an unavoidable inconvenience; for every soldier, entitled to his discharge, would certainly demand it, if he did not like the quarters the regiment was ordered to; and we may suppose, that no such soldier would ever go to Ireland, in case any regiment should be ordered thither; nor would many of the soldiers in the regiments now there, ever leave that country, in case of their being entitled to their discharge, at the time of the regiment's being ordered home. And as to Gibraltar, Port-Mahon, and the Plantations, we could never send any regiment to any of those places, or do justice to the regiments now there, by calling them home, in their turn, to their native land; for if a regiment was ordered to any of those places, I do not think there is a doubt to be made, but that every soldier in the regiment entitled to his discharge would demand it, probably just when the regiment was going to embark, so that the colonel could not have time to recruit, nor have it in his power

to carry a complete regiment thither, any other way than by giving such a premium to every soldier as he pleased to demand, for his agreeing to go along with him; and such demands, I believe, very few colonels would be able to comply with.

These, sir, are some of the inconveniences which I now foresee must necessarily arise from this bill, if passed into a law, and many others might ensue, which none of us at present can foresee; but those I have mentioned are, I think, sufficient for inducing every gentleman to be against this bill, who has a regard for the safety of his country, and thinks it cannot be secured without keeping on foot a number of regular troops.

"I should be as fond as any gentleman in this House of propagating military discipline, and a martial spirit among all ranks of men in this kingdom, and I would most readily agree to any regulation which had the least appearance of being effectual for that purpose, but the bill now before us, has not so much as the appearance of producing any such effect; for no man of any tolerable circumstances in life will deliberately enlist as a common soldier in the army, when he knows, that if he once enlists, he must remain in the army for ten years, unless his officer shall within that time think fit to grant

him a discharge.

Ten years, sir, is too great a part of human life for any man to continue in the army, merely for the sake of making himself master of military discipline; and if you should shorten this term of necessary service, it would add weight to every inconvenience I have mentioned.

"I will go further, sir: I will say, that if you should shorten the time, it might endanger the present establishment. We know, and I am sorry to say, that we have many great families disaffected to our present happy establishment, especially in the North, and among the Highlands of Scotland. They have a commanding influence over all those of their clan, and all the farms within their estates; they would prevail with, or rather command, every young fellow, whose father had any dependence upon them, to enlist and serve his time in the army; and by this means, they might provide themselves with a great number of disciplined soldiers, to be employed for overturning our present establishment, as soon as an opportunity offered. It is well known that the disaffected Chiefs in the Highlands of Scotland made use of the independent companies kept up in that country for this very purpose; and since the breaking of those companies, they have made use of the Scottish regiments in the Dutch service for the same

purpose. It was this that made the late Rebellion so formidable, and at first so successful. That army of rebels was not made up of shepherds, or fellows just taken from the plough, as it was represented through ignorance or design by the friends to the government here: it was chiefly composed of disciplined soldiers, and commanded by noblemen and gentlemen of rank and courage, though, I believe, of no great fortune; and if this bill should pass into a law, we may soon expect to hear of such another army appearing in favour of the Pretender.

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This, I say, sir, is a danger which may justly be apprehended even from the bill, should it pass into a law; and if the time of service in the army were to be shortened, this danger would become more certain and more imminent. I shall grant there is some danger in our not having any disciplined men in the kingdom, but such as are in our standing army, and subject to military law, and I wish with all my heart it were otherwise ; but whilst we have a superiority at sea, it is, I think, hardly possible for a foreign enemy to invade us with a number of regular troops superior to those we may now meet them with, should they have the good fortune, or rather, I should say, the bad fortune, to land in this island; and whilst our army is commanded by gentlemen of rank, and gentle

men whose property is of much greater value than any thing they can expect from their service in the army, I think we may depend upon it, that an army so commanded will never support a prince or minister in any way for the establishment of arbitrary power, which would of course render every man's property precarious..

"Even supposing that either this foreign or this domestic danger were, in our present circumstances, to be justly apprehended, I have shewn that neither the one nor the other could be rendered less to be apprehended by the passing this bill; on the contrary, if it added to the number of disciplined men not retained in the army, it would only be among such as would be ready to take up arms against us upon any invasion; and it would load the officers with such an expence, and expose them to so many inconveniences, that no gentleman of an easy fortune would ever accept of a commission: therefore, though I should willingly agree to any bill I thought effectual for propagating military discipline, and a warlike spirit among all ranks of men in this island, I cannot give my consent to the passing of the bill into a law, and consequently must give my negative to the question."

In this speech Lord George takes occasion, totally unconnected with the subject, to intro

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