Fourth. To improve this army in military difcipline, it is propofed, that when occafion offers, 5 or 6000 of them be maintained by Great Britain, as auxiliaries to fome ally at war. And if that body be changed from time to time, knowledge and practice in war will be diffufed through the whole army.

Officers who ferve for pay, will be greatly benefited by this plan frequent removes of those who ferve without pay, make way for them; and from the very nature of the plan, buying and felling is abfolutely ex

cluded.

I proceed to the alterations neceffary for accommodating this plan to our prefent military establishment. As a total revolution at one inftant would breed confufion, the first step ought to be a specimen only, fuch as the levying two or three regiments on the new model the expence of which ought not to be grudged, as the forces prefently in pay, are not fufficient, even in peace, to answer the ordinary demands of government. And as the profpect of civil employment, will excite more men of rank to offer their fervice than there is room for, the choice must be in the crown, not only with refpect to the new regiments, but with refpect to the vacant cornetcies and enfigncies in the old army. But as these regulations will not inftantly produce men qualified to be fecretaries of ftate or commiffioners of treafury, fo numerous as to afford his majesty a fatisfactory choice, that branch of the plan may be fufpended, till those who have ferved feven years without pay, amount to one hundred at least. The article that concerns members of parliament must be ftill longer fufpended ; it may however, after the first seven years, receive execution in part, by privileging those who have received no pay to reprefent a borough, refufing that privilege to others, except to actual burgeffes. We may proceed one step farther, That if in a county there be five gentlemen who have the qualification under confideration, over and above the ordinary legal qualifications, one of the five must be chofen, leaving the electors free as to their other representative.

With refpect to the private men of the old army, a thousand of fuch as have served the longest may be dif

banded

banded annually, if fo many be willing to retire; and in their stead an equal number may be inlifted, to ferve but seven years. Upon fuch a plan, it will not be difficult to find recruits.

The advantage of this plan, in one particular, is eminent. It will infallibly fill the army with gallant officers: Other advantages concerning the officers themfelves, fhall be mentioned afterward. An appetite for military glory cannot fail to be roufed in officers who serve without pay, when their fervice is the only passport to employments of trust and honour. And may we not hope, that officers who ferve for pay, will, by force of imitation, be infpired with the fame appetite? Nothing ought to be more fedulously inculcated into every officer, than to defpife riches, as a mercantile object, below the dignity of a foldier. Often has the courage of victorious troops been blunted by the pillage of an opulent city; and may not rich captures at fea have the fame effect? Some fea-commanders have been fufpected, of beftowing their fire more willingly upon a merchantman, than upon a fhip of war. A triumph, an ovation, a civic crown, or fome fuch mark of honour, were in old Rome the only rewards for military atchievements. Money, it is true, was fometimes diftributed among the private men, as an addition to their pay, after a fatiguing campaign; but not as a recompence for their good behaviour, because all fhared alike. It did not efcape the penetrating Romans, that wealth, the parent of luxury and selfishness, fails not to eradicate the military fpirit. The foldier, who to recover his baggage performed a bold action, gave an inftructive leffon to all govemments.

Being invited

* A Roman triumph was finely contrived to excite heroism; and a fort of triumph not lefs fplendid, was displayed by the Fatemite Califs of Egypt. After returning from a fuccessful expedition, the Calif pitched his camp in a spacious plain near his capital, where he was attended by all his grandees, in their finest equipages. Three days were commonly spent in all manner of rejoicings, feafting, mufic, fireworks, &c. He marched into the city with this great cavalcade, through roads covered with rich carpets, ftrewed with flowers, gums, and odoriferous plants, and hedged on both fides with crouds of congratulating fubjects.

;

invited by his general to try his fortune a second time Invite, fays the foldier, one who has loft his baggage. Many a bold adventurer goes to the Indies, who, returning with a fortune, is afraid of every breeze.Britain, I fufpect, is too much infected with the spirit of gain. Will it be thought ridiculous in any man of figure, to prefer reputation and refpect before riches; provided only he can afford a frugal meal, and a warm garment? Let us compare an old officer, who never deferted his friend nor his country, and a wealthy merchant, who never indulged a thought but of gain: the wealth is tempting ;-and yet does there exist a man of fpirit, who would not be the officer rather than the merchant, even with his millions? Sultan Mechmet granted to the Janifaries a privilege of importing foreign commodities free of duty was it his intention to metamorphofe foldiers into merchants, loving peace, and hating war?

But though I declare against large appointments beforehand, which, inftead of promoting fervice, are a temptation to luxury and idlenefs; yet to an officer of character, who has spent his younger years in ferving his king and country, a government, or other fuitable employment that enables him to pafs the remainder of his life in eafe and affluence, is a proper reward for merit, reflecting equal honour on the prince who beftows, and on the subject who receives befide affording an enlivening profpect to others, who have it at heart to do well.

With respect to the private men, the rotation propofed, aims at improvements far more important, than that of making military fervice fall light upon individuals. It tends to unite the fpirit of industry with that of war, and to form the fame man to be an induftrious labourer, as well as a good foldier. The continual exercise recommended, cannot fail to produce a fpirit of industry; which will occafion a demand for the private men after their seven years fervice, as valuable above all other labourers, not only for regularity, but for activity. And with refpect to the fervice in war, conftant exercife is the life of an army, in the literal as well as metaphorical sense. Boldness is infpir

ed

ed by strength and agility, to which conftant motion mainly contributes. The Roman citizens, trained to arms from their infancy, and never allowed to rest, were invincible. To mention no other works, spacious and durable roads carried to the very extremities of that vaft empire, fhow clearly how the foldiers were employed during peace; which hardened them for war, and made them orderly and fubmiffive (a). So effential was labour held by the Romans for training an army, that they never ventured to face an enemy, with troops debilitated in any degree by idleness. The Roman army in Spain, having been worsted in feveral engagements, and confined within their entrenchments, were funk in idlenefs and luxury. Scipio Nafica, after demolishing Carthage, taking the command of that army, durft not oppose it to the enemy, till he accuftomed the foldiers to temperance and hard labour. He exercised them without relaxation in marching and countermarching, in fortifying camps and demolishing them, in digging trenches and filling them up, in building high walls and pulling them down; he himself, from morning to night, going about, and directing every operation. Marius, before engaging the Cimbri, exercifed his army in turning the courfe of a river. Appian relates, that Antiochus, during his winter-quarters at Calchis, having married a beautiful virgin, with whom he was greatly enamoured, fpent the whole winter in pleafure, abandoning his army to vice and idleness: and when the time of action returned with the spring, he found his foldiers unfit for fervice. The idleness of our foldiers in time of peace, promoting debauchery and licentiousness, is no lefs deftructive to health than to difcipline. Unable for the fatigues of a firft campaign, our private men die in thousands, as if fmote with a peftilence *. We never read of any mortality in the Roman legions, though frequently engaged in climates very

(a) Bergiere hiftoire des grands chemins, vol. 2. p. 152.

The idleness of British foldiers appears from a tranfaction of the commiffioners of the annexed estates in Scotland. After the late war with France, they judged, that part of the King's rents could not be better bestowed, than in giving bread to the difband

ed

very different from their own. Let us liften to a judicious writer, to whom every one liftens with delight: "Nous remarquons aujourd'hui, que nos armées pé"riffent beaucoup par le travail immodéré des foldats "et cependant c'étoit par un travail immenfe que les "Romains fe confervoient. La raifon en eft, je croix, 66 que leurs fatigues étoient continuelles ; au lieu que "nos foldats paffent fans ceffe d'un travail extreme à 66 une extreme oifivété, ce qui eft la chofe du monde la p'us propre à les faire perir. Il faut que je rapporte "ici ce que les auteurs nous difent de l' education de "foldats Romains. On les acoutemoit à aller le pas "militaire, c' eft-a-dire, à fair en cinq heures vingt

66

milles, et quelquefois vingt-quatre. Pendant ces "marches, on leur faifoit porter de poids de foixante "livres. On les entretenoit dans l'habitude de courir "et de fautir tout armés, ils prenoient dans leurs ex"ercices des epées, de javelots, de flêeches, d' une "péfanteur double des armes ordinaires ; et ces exer"cices étoient continuels. Des hommes fi endurcis é"toient ordinairement fains; on ne remarque pas dans "les auteurs que les armeés Romaines, qui faifoient "la guerre en tant de climats, periffoient beaucoup par les maladies; au lieu qu'il arrive prefque conti"nuellement aujourd'hui, que des armées, fans avoir "combattu, fe fondent, pour ainfi dire, dans une 06 campagne * (a).” Marefchal Saxe, a foldier, not a physician, afcribes to the ufe of vinegar the healthi

nefs

ed foldiers. Houfes were built for them, portions of land given them to cultivate at a very low rent, and maintenance afforded them till they could reap a crop. These men could not wish to be better accommodated: but fo accustomed had they been to idleness, and change of place, as to be incapable of any fort of work; they deferted their farms one after another, and commenced thieves and beggars. Such as had been made ferjeants must be excepted: thefe were fenfible fellows, and profpered in their little farms.

(a) Montefquieu, Grandeur de Romains, chap. 2.

* "We observe now-a-days, that our armies are confumed "by the fatigues and fevere labour of the foldiers; and yet it "was alone by labour and toil that the Romans preferved them"felves from destruction. I believe the reafon is, that their fa

"tigue