miration of Europe, our ancestors did not think it incompatible with their fame or their liberties, to apply a confiderable fum to the fortifying the most vulnerable parts of their coafts. In the war before the laft, not indeed the last war, the war of contraft with the lait, a period to which it might be fuppofed he was fomewhat partial, a war in which the name of Britain was exalted above the highest and the proudest of the nations, the fame fyftem of policy had been purfued, and the idea of fortifications had been extended even to fo inconfiderable a place as Milford-haven in South Wales. As to the expence attending the building of the works, he flattered himself, that his fentiments on the finances of his country were not a back ground figure in his political character. It was too well known how much his feelings were engaged, not only by the duties of his ftation, and the propenfities of his mind, but by confiderations of his perfonal reputation, which was deeply committed in the question, to exert every nerve, to arm all his vigilance, and to concentre his efforts towards that great object, by which alone we could have a profpect of tranfmitting to our pofterity that fource of eafe and comfort of which ourfelves were in want, an efficient finking fund for the liquidation of the national debt. But he was not to be feduced by the plausible and popular, he would change his language, and fay the facred name of economy, to forego the reality, and for the fake of adding a few hundred thoufands more to the finking fund, render perhaps for ever abortive the finkfund itself. ing Mr. Pitt obferved, that there was a confideration which ought to have more weight than any other, and this was, that the fortifications, being calculated to afford complete fecurity to the dock-yards, would enable our fleet to go on remote fervices, and carry on the operations of war at a distance, without expofing the materials and feeds of future navies to deftruction by the invafion of an enemy. It had been infinuated that the fecond datum in the inftructions had proceeded upon the fuppofition of the fleets being abfent for an improbable time. The fleet had been abfent in the laft war for a time, nearly equal to that which was fuppofed, upon a fervice with which this country could not have dispensed without facrificing the most brilliant fuccefs of the war. Had we been then in fear of an attack upon our coasts, which from reafons, not proper to be mentioned, we happened not to be, Gibraltar and the renown of defending it must have been for ever loft. But it was not only by foreign expeditions, that we might lofe the aid of our fleet in cafe of an invafion; it might fo happen, that the fhips, though in the very channel, might be prevented by contrary winds, tides, and other contingencies, from arriving to the affittance and relief of the dock. yards. Upon the whole Mr. Pitt thought the prefent queftion was rather to be confidered, as connected with our naval establishment, than with those either of the army or the ordnance. Were it to be alked, why the fum to be required for thefe fortifications had not been demanded for ftrengthening the navy, he would fairly anfwer, that the money, which would prove sufficient to accomplish thefe works, would not build fo many fhips as would ferve for the defence of our moft valuable harbours. There was befides befides a certain degree beyond which the navy of this country could not go. There was a certain number of fhips beyond which fe could neither build nor man any more. The true limit he could not, nor would it be proper for him to affign; yet in the nature of things fuch a limit muft exift. But there could never be any line drawn, to restrain the fecurity which we ought to provide for our dock-yards. What could be the reason, that made gentlemen on the other fide of the house fo anxious to impede the measure? Were they bold enough, to stake themfelves upon a question of fuch awful magnitude, and to ftand forward with decided vehemence as the oppofers of a measure, which parliament, thinking itself incompetent to fcrutinize, had referred to the highest profef. fional authority, and about which the minifters of the crown, who could have no perfonal feelings upon the fubject, except fuch, as, from confiderations of their own eafe and advantage, were hoftile to the proceeding, declared themselves to be fo much interefted, as to be unable to rest upon their pillows fo long as it remained in fufpenfe? Mr. Pitt called upon the house to beware how they fuffered them. felves lightly to be drawn into a line of conduct, which might involve their posterity in accumulated evils; and he fuggefted to their recollection the remorfe which they must feel, if they should hereafter find, that they had by an ill-timed pertinacity upon the present occafion brought upon their country calamity and ruin. The oppofition to the measure of the fortifications was opened by the country gentlemen. Mr. Baftard animadverted with much freedom upon the manner in which the board of enquiry had been inftituted, and the manoeuvre by which three of its most skilful members had been excluded from taking their feats. He treated the fcheme of fortifications of the duke of Richmond as not lefs chimerical and vifionary, than the romantic abfurdities of Don Quixotte. He dwelt with particular force upon the danger that he conceived would refult to the conftitution, and upon the defertion, which would thus be exhibited in the face of the world, of our natural defence, and the wooden walls of England. The nation had always entertained an extreme jealoufy of whatever looked like an increafe of the standing army. With refpect to the militia, our more favourite defence, had it not derived its greatest recommendation from the circumftance of its members mixing fo much with the people in their houses, and thus preferving their character as citizens, rather than holding themselves out as foldiers? The militia indeed had been called the school of the army; and this undefirable defcription would become fully justified by our fhutting them up in fortreffes, and keeping them feparate from their fellow fubjects. Their ftrong holds might then be denominated feminaries for føldiers, and univerfities for Prætorian bands. Mr. Baftard felt little difficulty in difcovering, that the great object was to relinquish that method of defence, which from the prudent choice and fanction of our ancestors had rifen into importance and celebrity. He for one could not reprefs his indignation at the idea of tearing the entign of British glory from the maft head, and fixing it to the standard of the ramparts of a military garrifon. He affured Mr. Pitt, that the fenfe of the country was was decidedly against his fyftem; that the description of perfons, by whom he would find himself op pofed this day, were not actuated by party motives, or with a view to factious purpofes; and that they ftood up the impartial and independent advocates of their country. Sir William Lemon purfued the objections of Mr. Baftard; and particularly obferved how ill-timed it was, to recommend a plan of fortifications to the house, when it had not yet been afcertained whether our conftitutional force, the militia, was to be called out annually or not. He did not impute any ill design to the present adminiftration; but he conceived, that, in the hands of a weak prince and of wicked minifters, the propofed fy item might grow into a formidable engine of prerogative, and be turned against the freedom and conftitution of Britain. Mr. Walwyn, lately elected member for the city of Hereford, begged leave to recommend it to Mr. Pitt voluntarily to abandon a measure, to which the public in general were extremely averfe. He faid that report had confidently affirmed, that the fentiments of the minister were not with the fyftem, and that he was by no means its fincere advocate; and he hoped the report was true. Viscount Mahon juftified the meafure, and refted its defence in particular upon the circumflance, that the neceflity of fortifications was admitted on all hands, and that the true quellion lay between the exiting fortifications, which required a very large body of troops to man them, and the plan of the duke of Richmond, the tendency of which was to decreafe the number of troops that would be requifite, and which therefore ought to be a favourite with thofe perfons who entertained 2 a conftitutional jealousy of a standing army. The fyftem was farther defended by lord Hood, fir Charles Middleton, captain Berkeley, captain Bowyer, captain Luttrel, Mr. Hawkins Browne, and Mr. Dundas. It was oppofed by general: Burgoyne, Mr. Marfham, Mr. Wyndham, Mr. Courtenay, lord North and Mr. Fox. Captain Macbride treated the whole conftruction of the report in: a ftyle of the most sarcastic ridicule. He affirmed, that the duke of Rich-: mond had employed the most aftonifhing art and fineffe to endeavour to warp the opinions of the naval officers in favour of his fyftem. Failing in that, he had recourse to a piece of mummery, which the cap-tain defcribed, and which had expofed the mafter-general to the ridicule of the whole country. The conduct of the duke through the whole progrefs of the affair was: utterly unprecedented. He rather guided and dictated the decifions, than merely prefided in the affembly. It had been the first board of officers that ever was constituted, where queftion and answer came from the prefident and the senior: members. In every other cafe the. junior officer gave his opinion first; in this the eftablished mode of proceeding was completely reverfed. Colonel Barré renewed upon this occafion the oppofition he had formerly given to the fyftem of the duke of Richmond. He obferved, that, when the house had done him the honour to adopt his advice in the last feffion, he certainly had not intended by a board of land and fea officers, a paltry, narrow, circumfcribed plan, that should relate only to two particular fpots of the ifland. He had had in his contemplation the conduct of the wifest :princefs that ever reigned, who at a period a period of extreme peril had taken advantage of the collected wifdom of every thing that was experienced in both fervices in her king dom. The board, which he had wifhed to fee inftituted, was a board of great, refpectable and independent characters; men, who had no vote to give, no favours to look for, no frowns to fear; men, who would have done their duty without the confideration of whom the refult would gratify, and whom it would difplease. Their object was to have been 10 enquire into and report the best mode of defence of the kingdom. They would have acted upon a large fcale, and taken an extenfive furvey of the whole. They would not have compreffed their business into ten days at Portfmouth,and ten days at Plymouth,but would have employed a due proportion of time in the deliberate difcharge of their duty. The duke of Richmond, colonel Barré acknowledged, had great abilities, and great affiduity. He was acute, fcientifical, and a perfect mafter of argument in debate. No wonder that he was too much for a fet of brave officers, whofe chief fkill was to out with their lower deck tier and make ready for action. No wonder that the refpectable officers who had conflituted the board, whofe characters he revered, and to whofe authority he bowed in fubmiflion, were found incapable to cope with the duke in a logical conteft. The colonel paid a very high compliment to the integrity and abilities of Mr. Pitt, He could not account for his having taken fo active a part in the recommendation of fo wild and useless a project, but by fuppofing that his confcience had been furprised, and that he alfo had fallen a facrifice to the fophiftry of the master-general. 77 Mr. Sheridan particularly diftinguished himself in this debate. He immediately followed lord vif count Mahon; and he profeffed his fincere belief, that this nobleman would not vote for the measure in difcuffion, but upon the fuppofition that its tendency was to diminish the military power of the crown. Upon this ground therefore he would meet him, and he was fanguine enough to imagine, that he might be induced to alter the opinion he had delivered, unless he were restrained from exercifing his free judgment upon the fubject. This apprehenfion indeed might be conceived, from the horror which lord Mahon had lately expreffed of a tory foe in another place, who both by fap and by form bad affailed thofe conftitutional bulwarks, which this nobleman had fo zealoufly endeavoured to erect for the defence of the rights of election. It was not unnatural to prefume, that lord Mahon might have entered into a ferious compact with the duke of Richmond, his former ally on the fubject, for reciprocal affiftance in their two favourite objects, by which lord Mahon was peremptorily to fupport the plan of fortifying the dock-yards in that house, or the duke of Richmond would no longer engage to affift him in fortifying the conftitution in the other. Mr. Sheridan entered at fome length into the part of the argument which related to the conftitu. tion. When we talked of a conftitutional jealousy of the military power of the crown, what was the real object to which we pointed our fufpicion? What, but that it was in the nature of kings to love power, and in the conftitution of armies to obey kings. This doubtless was plain fpeaking upon a delicate fub ject, but the circumstances of the question queftion demanded it; and he could not be fufpected of alluding in the fmallest degree either to the prefent monarch on the throne, or to the army now under his command. The poffible existence however of finifter intentions and unfavourable circumstances, was that, which muft enter into the mind of every man when he admitted an argument up on the fubject. If this were not the cafe, we burlesqued and derided the wisdom of our ancestors in the provifions of the bill of rights, and made a mockery of the falutary and facred referve, with which for a limited period we annually entrusted the executive magiftrate with the defence of the country. But this being admitted to be the ground of proceeding, what was it to which our attention fhould be directed? Were our apprehenfions to point only at the length of the mufterroll? Were we to calculate the number of foldiers the king could encamp at Hounflow; or the force of the detachment he might fpare to furround the lobby of the houfe of commons? No: the jet and fubftance of the queftion lay here; in what fituation would the king and his evil advisers find themfelves in a state of the greatest force and preparation, and most likely to receive the fupport of the military? In this point of view would no ftrefs be given to the great and important diftinction which had been urged, between troops elected and feparated from their fellow-citizens in garrifons and forts, and men living fcattered and entangled in all the common duties and connections of their countrymen? The fact was, that these strong military holds, if maintained as they must be in peace by full and difciplined garrifons, would in truth promise ten fold the means of curbing and fubduing the country, that could arife even from doubling the prefent establifhment, with this extraordinary aggravation, that those very naval ftores and magazines, the feeds and fources of future navies, the effectual prefervation of which was the pretence for these unaffailable for reffes, would in that cafe become a pledge and hostage in the hands of the crown: a circumftance, which, in a country like this, muft infure an unconditional fubmiffion to the most extravagant claims that defpotifm could dictate. Mr. Sheridan however afferied, that nothing could prove more fallacious than the idea, that a system of defence by fortifications could terminate in a retrenchment of the ftanding army. The grand fallacy of this argument must be obvious to every one in the fuppofition, that the fyftem was to end with Portfmouth and Plymouth, and that the reafoning, upon which the extenfive works for thofe places were juftified, would not apply to other parts of the kingdom. To refute this idea, it was fimply neceffary to fuppofe the fame board of offi cers, acting under the fame inftructions and deliberating with the fame data, going a circuit round the the coafts of the kingdom. It was fuperfluous to dwell upon the circumftances, that no longer permitted. us to confider Holland in future, otherwife than as a province of France, or that rendered it reafon. able to look with an eye of apprehenfion to the neighbouring coaft belonging to the emperor. It was not poffible for the house to remain at a lofs to difcover various places, befides Chatham and Sheerness where! extenfive lines had actually been begun under the aufpices of the duke of Richmond, which must neceffarily |