Take another preliminary confideration. While there were any remains among us of a martial spirit, the difficulty was not · great of recruiting the army. But that task hath of late years become troublefome; and more difagreeable still than troublesome, by the neceffity of using deceitful arts for trepanning the unwary youth. Nor are fuch arts always fucceffful in our late war with France, we were neceffitated to give up even the appearance of voluntary service, and to recruit the army on the folid principle, that every man fhould fight for his country; the juftices of peace being empowered to force into the service fuch as could be beft fpared from civil occupation. If a fingle. claufe had been added, limiting the fervice to five or feven years, the measure "nobility and the men of wealth. There would "not be a fingle man who would complain of it. A "person who had served his time, would treat with contempt another who fhould fhow reluctance to "comply with the law; and thus, by degrees, it "would become a task of honour. The poor citi zen would be comforted and infpirited by the ex"ample of his rich neighbour; and he again would "have nothing to complain of, when he faw that "the nobleman was not exempted from fervice." would have been unexceptionable, even in a land of liberty. To relieve officers of the army from the neceffity of practifing deceitful arts, by substituting a fair and constitutional mode of recruiting the army, was a valuable improvement. It was of importance with refpect to its direct intendment; but of much greater, with refpect to its confequences. One of the few difadvantages of a free ftate, is licentioufnefs in the common people, who may wallow in diforder and profligacy without control, if they but refrain from grofs crimes, punishable by law. Now, as it appears to me, there never was devised a plan more efficacious for reftoring induftry and fobriety, than that under confideration. Its falutary effects were confpicuous, even during the fhort time it subfifted. The dread of being forc'd into the fervice, rendered the populace peaceable and orderly it did more; it rendered them induftrious in order to conciliate favour. The moft beneficial discoveries have been accidental: without having any view but for recruiting the army, our legislature ftumbled upon an excellent plan for reclaiming the idle and the profligate; a : matter, matter, in the prefent depravity of manners, of greater importance than any other that concerns the police of Britain. A perpetual law of that kind, by promoting industry, would prove a fovereign remedy against mobs and riots, difeafes of a free ftate, full of people and of manufactures*. Why were the foregoing statutes, for there were two of them, limited. to a temporary exiftence? There is not on record another ftatute better intitled to immortality. And now to the project, which after all my efforts I produce with trepidation; not from any doubt of its folidity, but as ill fuited to the prefent manners of this ifland. To hope that it will be put in practice, would indeed be highly ridiculous: this can never happen, till patriotism flourish more in Britain than it has * Several late mobs in the fouth of England, all of them on pretext of fcarcity, greatly alarmed the administration. A fact was difcovered by a private perfon (Six-weeks tour through the south of England) which our minifters ought to have difcovered, that these mobs conftantly happened where wages were high and provifions low; confequently that they were occafioned, not by want, but by wan tonnefs. done done for fome time past. Suppofing now an army of 60,000 men to be fufficient for Britain, a rational method for raising fuch an army, were there no ftanding forces, would be, that land-proprietors, in proportion to their valued rents, should furnish men to serve seven years, and no longer *. But as it would be no lefs unjust than imprudent, to disband at once our present army, we begin with moulding gradually the old army into the new, by filling up vacancies with men bound to ferve feven years and no longer. And for raifing proper men, a matter of much delicacy, it is proposed, that in every fhire a fpecial commiffion be given to certain landholders of rank and figure, to raise recruits out of the lower claffes, felecting always thofe who are the least useful at home. Second. Those who claim to be difmiffed after serving the appointed time, shall never again be called to the fervice, ex * In Denmark, every land-proprietor of a certain rent, is obliged to furnish a militia-man, whom he can withdraw at pleasure upon fubftituting another; an excellent method for taming the peasants, and for rendering them industrious. cept cept in cafe of an actual invafion. They fhall be intitled each of them to a premium of eight or ten pounds, for enabling them to follow a trade or calling, without being fubjected to corporationlaws. The private men in France are inlifted but for fix years; and that mode has never been attended with any inconvenience * Third. With refpect to the private men, idleness must be totally and for ever banished. Suppofing three months yearly to be fufficient for military difcipline; the men, during the rest of the year, ought to be employ'd upon public works, forming roads, erecting bridges, making rivers navigable, clearing harbours, &c. &c. Why not alfo furnish men for half-pay to private undertakers of useful works? And fuppofing the daily pay of a foldier to be * Had the plan of discharging foldiers after a fervice of five or seven years been early adopted by the Emperors of Rome, the Pretorian bands would never have become mafters of the ftate. It was a grofs error to keep thefe troops always on foot without change of members; which gave them a confidence in one another, to unite in one folid body, and to be actuated as it were by one mind. ten |