was purfued? In 1794, when voluntary offers of fervice were introduced, for the defence of the country, this mode was reprefented as repugnant to the conftitution. And now, when men are called on to contribute their property, and perfonal fervice to the defence of their country, it is difcovered to be unjuft and ftigmatized as requifition. He admits the neceffity of precaution, and yet reprobated every preventive measure that was propofed: and, while he agreed that it is neceflary to provide for the defence of the ftate, he is diffatisfied with the means by which fecurity is to be obtained.

Mr. Fox, in reply to Mr. Pitt's argument, in proof of the inconfiftency between his declarations and his conduct, obferved, that though he did not oppofe his vote to the prefent refolution, he did not give lis unqualified aflent to the meafures propofed. This was by no means the ftage in which members were called on, (and this was remarked even by Mr. Pitt himfelf, this very night, when he propofed his refolutions) to give their fentiments fully on the questions before them.

Sir William Pultney did not expect that any difference of opinion would have arifen on the prefent queftion; a queftion, in his mind, that embraced fo many falutary objects. He had only one objection to it, and that was, its being a half measure; it ought to be extended to the full point; and on that ground he fhould meet the wishes of the minifter with double pleasure. He fhould not apply to minifters

for any additional information on the fubject. It was evident that the French had an invalion of this country in view, and it therefore became the executive government to make every proper and neceflary preparation.

As this force was to be commanded by country gentlemen, it could not be called an increase of the power of the crown on the contrary, he fhould confider it to be an increase of the power of the country against the crown. We should not wait until an invafion was actually to take place. Muft not time be given for men to be prepared and difciplined? or, were they to march against an invading enemy, without the means of defence, or ignorant of the ufes of those arms they might chance to have about them?

The refolutions propofed by Mr. Pitt, refpecting the augmentation of our militia and naval force were agreed to, and being thrown into the form of bills, were, after various objections and anfwers, and not a few alterations, amendments, and explanations, pafled into laws, in the month of December. Early in June, a bill was brought into the houfe of commons, by the fecretary of ftate, Mr. Dundas, for raifing and embodying a militia in Scotland. As to the game-keepers bill, which formed at first a part of the cavalry-bill, ftrong objections having been made by Mr. Sheridan, and others, to its unconftitutional principles and dangerous tendency, it was, on the fecond of December, withdrawn, on the fecond reading.

CHAP.

THE

HE ancient hiftorians of the two principal nations of antiquity, at leaft of thofe with whom we are at all tolerably acquainted, fo charming and inftructive, by their attention to whatever is fitted to engage attention, and intereft the human heart, have generally left us in the dark about the annual fupplies. Their heroes, indeed, performed great exploits; but of the ways and means by which they raised, embodied, and fupported their armies, we do not find in their works any regular or fatisfactory account: fo that the leaders of ancient expedition, have the appearance, in our imagination, of fallying forth without fcrip or purfe, like the adventurers in the ancient romances.

The progrefs offociety; the extended theatres, and multiplied objects of war, with new methods of preparing, combining, and applying force, have rendered military operations at fea and land fo complicated and expenfive, that the intelligent reader of modern times is not more curious to know the fortune, and fate of armies, and navies, when raised, than to be made acquainted with the pecuniary

refources, by which they are fupported: in a delineation, therefore, of great affairs, the paffions and views of fovereign princes, the movements of armies, and the revolutions cf ftates and kingdoms, it becomes indifpenfibly neceffary for the modern hiftorian, or annalift. to give fome account of revenue, finance, and commerce: a fubject, however, into which we shall not enter more than is abfolutely neceflary. We shall confine ourfelves to general refults, it being impoffible to infufe any degree of intereft into minute arithmetical details, or to render them to moft men other than tedious, dry, and difgufting.

The houfe of commons, having on the twentieth of October, 1796, refolved itfelf into a committee of fupply, the fecretary-at-war moved that the eftimates, prefented on a former day, fhould now be taken into confideration. Though the whole of the estimates, on account of official delays, were not yet ready for infpection, that portion of them, which he held in his hand, would afford every information, in point of fact, that could come before them.

The estimates on the table contained details of the moft material arrangements of the current year, and would be found, every way, explicit on the fubject of the expenditure.

The whole force of this country, confifting of the common diftribution of guards and garrifons, and colonies, and plantations, amounted to one hundred and ninety-five thoufand fix hundred and feventy-four men, the expence of which would amount to 5,190,000. The home army contained all the troops which might be confidered as ferving for the defence of the country; guards, regulars of every defcription, and fencibles. The army, at home, amounted to fixty thousand feven hundred and fixty-five men. The army, abroad, comprehending the troops in the West Indies, Corfica, Gibraltar, Canada, Nova Scotia, and every foreign fervice, except thofe in the Eaft Indies, which fell under a feparate defcription, amounted to fixty-four thoufand two hundred and seventy-fix men. The army, abroad, was compofed entirely of regulars; the army, at home, of regulars, invalids, militia, and fencibles. Mr. Wyndham concluded his ftatements with moving for the land-fervice of this year, one hundred and ninety-five thousand

men.

General Tarleton expected that the honourable secretary would have gone more into detail. The general, after animadverting on fundry expences, which he held to be anneceffary, adverted to a fact which was of the utmott importance, and well deferving the confideration of the houfe of commons, especially of a new parliament. Laft year the

expence of the army amounted to the full revenue of this country, the year previous to the war. His majefty's speech, however, had directed their attention to the atchievements that had been performed by our troops in different parts of the world. He did not think, however, that there was much room for boasting. The armament, which had been equipped for expeditions to the Weft Indies, had been attended with enormous expence. What was the reafon that the full advantage, which it might have been expected to produce, had not been obtained? Had the fleet failed too late in the feafon, or did the fault lie at the door of the ministers? Whether we looked at the general state of the Weft Indies, or at particular islands, there was not much room for fatisfaction or exultation. The Caribs, in St. Vincent's were still in a state of infurrection. The troubles in Gaudaloupe, and various other iflands, ftill interrupted, and deftroyed, the induftry of the inhabitants. Victor Hughes had not been diflodged, nor his operations difconcerted. In St. Domingo the melancholy ravages which had been made, by disease, afforded no fatisfaction in the review. Was the attempt to reduce this ifland to be profecuted at the expence of the lives of fo many gallant and brave men? Almoft every person in that houfe, and in the country, had to lament the lofs of their friends, brought to an untimely end by the mortality which fwept every thing before it. If we confidered the extent of the armament, there was fomething furely faulty in the plan, or why was there fo little obtained for fo much expence, and so many facrifices?

Mr..

Mr. Huffey defired to be in formed what was the number of effective men among the one hundred and ninety-five thousand contained in the secretary at wars ftate

ment.

The fecretary replied that he was not prepared to give any anfwer to the queftion.

Mr. Fox faid he had heard it. alleged that the engagement, made on the part of this country, with the Maroons, had not been faithfully adhered to. He understood this to be the declared opinion of an officer, of whole military talents, and private worth, though not perfonally acquainted with him, he entertained the highest opinion. He alluded to colonel Walpole

Mr. Bryan Edwards, not having had the honour of a feat in that houfe, until the prefent parliament, made an apology for calling the attention of the houfe to any obfervations of his. But being perfectly acquainted with the fubject to which the right honourable gentleman alluded, he begged the indulgence of the house, while he stated a brief hiftory of the Maroon negroes; the cause of the late war between thofe people and the inhabitants of Jamaica; and the conduct of the colonial affembly in the termination of the bufinefs. The Maroon negroes, Mr. Edwards faid, agreeably to what has already been stated, in the volume of this work for 1795, are the defcendents of the Spanish negroes, who, when the ifland of Jamaica furrendered to the English, in 1655, betook themselves to the woods. They were left in poffeffion of the interior country, and continued masters of the country for near a century, murdering, without mercy, all fuch white perfons as

attempted to make any fettlements near them, not fparing even the women and children. In the year 1760, Mr. Edwards became acquainted with thofe people: when he foon obferved, that they were fufpicious allies, and would, fome time or other, become very formidable enemies. Yet it was not true, as* ftated in that houfe, that the inhabitants of Jamaica wanted to get rid of them. The inhabitants, in general, had conceived the higheft opinion of their utility, and treated them with the utmoft kindness. They never afked a favour of government, or of the affembly, that was refufed them. The immediate caufe of the late war with the Maroons, Mr. Edwards ftated to be this.

The

"Two of the Maroons, having been found guilty of felony, in the town of Montego-Bay, by stealing from a poor man two of his pigs, were tried according to law, and according to the very letter of the treaty, and fentenced to receive a few lahes at a cart's tail. fentence was mild, and the punishment not fevere: but the whole body of the Trelawney town Maroons, in revenge for the indignity offered to two of their number, immediately took up arms, and foon afterwards actually proceeded to fet fire to the plantations. Sir, I fhall not take up the time of the house with a long detail of military opera tions. The gallant officer, whom the right honourable gentleman who fpoke laft named, had undoubtedly the merit, under the judicious orders of the earl of Balcarras, of putting an end to the most unnatural and unprovoked rebellion: and if thofe two diftinguished perfons differed in opinion, concerning the terms on which the Maroons furrendered,

it is much to be lamented. They both deferved equally well of the community of Jamaica and the British empire at large. Such, however, I am forry to fay, was the fact, and there. fore the governor, very properly, left the whole to the determination of the affembly. Sir, the firft conditions on which the Maroons were to furrender, were thele; Ift. that they fhould, on a day appointed, give up their arms, and furrender all the fugitive enflaved negroes who had joined them. 2d. That they fhould ask the king's pardon on their knees. On thefe terms their lives were to be spared, and permiffion granted them to remain in the country. Now, fir, it is a fact, not to be denied, that they did not furrender on the day fixed; and that they did not, then or on any day afterwards, give up the fugitive negroes. I do not believe that colonel Walpole avers that they did. Colonel Walpole, fir, who is not lefs diftinguifhed for his humanity than his bravery, thinks, I believe, that it would have been generous in the affembly to have imputed their not furrendering in time to their ignorance, rather than to any wilful delay, and politic to have let them remain in the country; but I do not conceive that he charges, either the earl of Balcarras or the affembly with treachery. The affembly, how ever, thought differently from colonel Walpole, and that men who had violated their allegiance, and entered into a bloody and cruel war, with out provocation, were unfit to remain in the ifland; yet, in the difpofal of thefe people they manifefted a degree of generofity and tenderness, which is without example. Sir, after providing with fit and proper clothing for a change of cli

mate, the affembly fent them to Ame rica, and appointed three gentlemen to accompany them thither, with a fum of 25,000l. to purchafe lands for their future fettlement, and for their maintenance for the first year, after which it is hoped the example of the white people, with whom they are fettled, and being removed from the former wild and favage way of life, they may become an ufeful body of yeomanry. I will add only one word more. Sir, there is now a gentleman in this town, who converfed with the Maroons the night before they failed, and who affures me that they expreffed themfelves well fatiffied with the conduct of the af fembly towards them; and declared, that having converfed with some American negroes, concerning the country to which they were going. they faid they were content to go. I hope, therefore, we fhall hear no more of the bufinefs.

Mr. Wilberforce obferved that the Maroons had been for one hundred and forty years on the island of Jamaica, and he conceived that, if not fit fubjects of lenity, they were yet fit fubjects of inftruction. They had been British subjects. But he was yet to learn, whether any steps had been taken to inftruct them, or to bring them to a true knowledge of the bleffings of Chriftianity. He did not ftand up as the advocate of the conduct of the Maroons, but he thought the neceflary means had not been taken to make them acquainted with habits of virtue.

Mr. Edwards, in reply, faid, when he took the liberty of anfwering the charge of the right honourable member over the way, (alluding to Mr. Fox) refpecting the faith of the country having been broken; he did fo, be

caufe