REPEAL OF ADDITIONAL FORCE BILL. (Hansard, 17 April 1806)

§ General Tarleton
begged to call the attention of the house to the papers that had been printed since the right hon. gent. had opened his sketch of the measures he had proposed to bring forward. These papers would shew that the bill, now proposed to be repealed, afforded the best means of obtaining a supply for the army, as it was now in full force, and all the difficulties which it had encountered were got over. He hoped the house would interpose its authority to prevent the country from being deprived of its effects. He called on gentlemen to examine these papers, in order to prepare themselves for the debate on the 2d reading of the bill.

§ Mr. Hawthorne
concurred with the hon. general in hoping that gentlemen would come prepared to judge of the bill, after having read the papers on the table, which, he was convinced would satisfy them that the bill had completely failed.

§ Mr. Perceval
recommended to the house, in his turn, an examination of these papers, because he was sure the result would be the reverse of what had been stated by the hon. member who preceded him. The right hon. gent. (Mr. Pitt) who had brought forward the measure, had stated last session, that on the average of the 3 weeks preceding the 6th of March, that year, it had produced nearly 200 per week, and on the average of the 3 months preceding, it would produce 9 or 10,000 in the year. And in the 50 weeks ending the 14th of last March, it had produced above 9000 men. In the last 15 weeks it had produced an average of 258 per week, which would give 13,200 in the year; in the last 10 weeks an average of 277, or 14,600 in the year; and in the last five weeks, an average of 356 per week, being at the rate of above 18,000 in the year; and this under all the discouragements which interfered with its operation. They would also find by the papers, that the bill had not been effectual in the first instance, because it had not been understood. When it had been explained by the inspecting field officers, the 793 result had been to give renewed activity to the bill.

Lord Temple
thought the house obliged to the learned gent. for the course of reading he recommended; but was of opinion that they should adopt a more enlarged system of education. He begged the house would consider not so much the number of men raised, as the means by which they were raised, and the manner in which the bill had been received in the country.

Colonel Craufurd
observed, that the hon. gent. opposite seemed to assume that the whole of the men had been raised by the provisions of the bill. He, on the contrary, was persuaded that not a man had been obtained but by means extraneous to the bill, every one of whom would have been produced if no such bill had been in existence: 16 guineas bounty were given for the regular army; 12 were given for this force, and 10 afterwards on entering the line, so that by this means the individual obtained a bounty of 22 guineas. —The bill was then read a first time; and on the question that it be read a second time,

§ Mr. Canning
gave notice, that on the day on which this bill should be fixed for a 2d reading, he should move to defer that stage of the bill, till such time as the house should have an opportunity of judging of the measures to be brought forward by the right hon. gent. This bill was for the repeal of a measure, that afforded a resource to a certain extent to provide even for the army. He did not mean to discuss the merits of that measure, but was sure the house would do right not to get rid of it until they should know what was to be substituted for it. The course he should take would be not to get rid of the present bill, but to suspend its progress till they should be able to judge of the value of the measures to be brought forward. The right hon. gent. appeared to have proceeded in an inverted order, by proposing to repeal a measure that afforded a resource to a certain extent, before he was prepared to bring forward a substitute. He should not propose to defer the second reading of the bill beyond the present session, but for such a period as would allow the house an opportunity of judging, whether they were to look to any thing as a substitute for the measure to be repealed but visions, projects, and fancies.