Mr. SANDYS this day moved for an humble address to his majesty, that,
for the future ease of his majesty's subjects, all officers now
subsisting upon half-pay, etc. might be employed in the army, and
supported it to the following effect:
Sir, though I have often known motions opposed without any just
objections, or at least without any proof of such inconveniencies likely
to arise from them, as were equivalent to the advantages which they
would have produced, yet I cannot but confess, that any opposition to
this will be unexpected and surprising; for it is, in my opinion,
supported by every law of justice and humanity. If we regard the publick
in general, it cannot but produce some alleviation of the national
expense; and if we consider the particular persons to whom it
immediately relates, they have certainly a just claim to that regard
which it is the tendency of this motion to procure them.
To burden with superfluous officers, and unnecessary expenses, a people
already overwhelmed with taxes, and overrun with the dependents on the
crown, is, surely, to the highest degree cruel and absurd. And to
condemn those men to contempt and penury, who have served their country
with bravery and fidelity, to prefer unexperienced striplings to those
commissions, which would gladly be accepted by men who have already
tried their courage in the battle, and borne the fatigues of marches,
and the change of climates, is surely not only to oppress the deserving,
and scatter promotion without just distinction; but, what is yet more
enormous, it is to wanton with the publick safety, and expose us to our
enemies.
Nor does it appear to me sufficient, that the veteran officers be
restored to the commissions which they formerly enjoyed; they ought,
upon an augmentation of our troops, to be recompensed by some
advancement for their services and their sufferings; the ensign ought to
become a lieutenant, and the lieutenant be exalted to a captain;
stations which they will surely fill with more dignity and greater
abilities, than boys newly discharged from school, and intrusted with
unexpected authority.
If it be reasonable, sir, that expense should be spared in a time of
general poverty, if it be politick to carry on war in the manner most
likely to produce success, if it be just, that those who have served
their country should be preferred to those who have no merit to boast,
this motion cannot be rejected.
Sir William YONGE answered to this purpose:--Sir, to the motion now
made, it will not, I believe, be objected, that it is unreasonable, or
unjust, but that it is unnecessary, and that it is not drawn up with
sufficient consideration.
It is unnecessary, because his majesty is advised by it to no other
measures than those which he has already determined to pursue; for he
has declared to me, sir, his intention of conferring the new commissions
upon the officers who receive half-pay, before any other officers shall
be promoted.
The motion appears to me not to be very attentively considered, or drawn
up with great propriety of expression; for it supposes all the half-pay
officers fit for the service, which cannot be imagined by any man, who
considers that there has been peace for almost thirty years; a space of
time, in which many vigorous constitutions must have declined, and many,
who were once well qualified for command, must be disabled by the
infirmities of age. Nor is the promotion of one of these gentlemen
considered always by him as an act of favour; many of them have, in this
long interval of peace, engaged in methods of life very little
consistent with military employments, many of them have families which
demand their care, and which they would not forsake for any advantages
which a new commission could afford them, and therefore it would not be
very consistent with humanity to force them into new dangers and
fatigues which they are now unable to support.
With regard to these men, compassion and kindness seem to require that
they should be suffered to spend their few remaining days without
interruption, and that the dangers and toils of their youth should be
requited in their age with ease and retirement.
There are others who have less claim to the regard of the publick, and
who may be passed by in the distribution of new preferments without the
imputation of neglecting merit. These are they who have voluntarily
resigned their commissions for the sake of half-pay, and have preferred
indolence and retreat to the service of their country.
So that it appears, that of those who subsist upon half-pay, some are
unable to execute a commission, some do not desire, and some do not
deserve it; and with regard to the remaining part, which can be no great
number, I have already stated the intention of his majesty, and
therefore cannot but conclude that the motion is needless.
Mr. PULTENEY spoke as follows:--Sir, I know not by what fatality it is,
that all the motions made by one party are reasonable and necessary, and
all that are unhappily offered by the other, are discovered either to be
needless, or of pernicious tendency. Whenever a question can be clouded
and perplexed, the opponents of the ministry are always mistaken,
confuted, and, in consequence of the confutations, defeated by the
majority of votes. When truth is too notorious to be denied, and too
obvious to be contested, the administration claim the honour of the
first discovery, and will never own that they were incited to their duty
by the remonstrances of their opponents, though they never, before those
remonstrances, had discovered the least intention of performing it.
But that the motion is allowed to be just and proper, is sufficient; the
importance of it will be easily discovered. For my part I shall always
consider that motion as important, which tends to contract the expenses
of the publick, to rescue merit from neglect, and to hinder the increase
of the dependents on the ministry.
Sir Robert WALPOLE answered:--Sir, there is no temper more opposite to
that incessant attention to the welfare of the publick, which is the
perpetual boast of those who have signalized themselves by opposing the
measures of the administration, than a lust of contradiction, and a
disposition to disturb this assembly with superfluous debates.
Whether this disposition is not discovered in the reply made to the
declaration of his majesty's intentions, and the confession of the
propriety of the motion, let the house determine. It must surely be
confessed, that it is not necessary to advise what is already
determined.
Nor is it less evident, that many of the officers whose interest is now
so warmly solicited, must be incapacitated by their age for service, and
unable to receive any benefit from the offer of new commissions. To deny
this, is to question the flux of time, or to imagine that the
constitution of a soldier is exempt from its injuries.
Mr. SANDYS explained himself to this effect:--Sir, I am far from
intending by this motion to fill the army with decrepit officers, or to
obstruct in any manner the service of the publick; nor have I any other
intention, than to secure to those whose years permit, and whose
inclinations incite them to enter once more into the army, that
preferment to which they have a claim, not only from their past
services, but from the state of penury and obscurity in which they have
languished.
I desire to preserve those, whose valour has heretofore made our nation
the terrour of the world, from the mortification of seeing themselves
insulted by childhood, and commanded by ignorance; by ignorance exalted
to authority by the countenance of some rhetorician of the senate, or
some mayor of a borough.
Whoever has observed the late distribution of military honours, will
easily discover that they have been attained by qualifications very
different from bravery, or knowledge of the art of war; he will find
that regiments and companies are the rewards of a seasonable vote, and
that no man can preserve his post in the army, whether given him as the
reward of acknowledged merit, or sold him for the full value, any longer
than he employs all his influence in favour of the ministry.
Sir Robert WALPOLE then said:--Sir, it has been already admitted, that
the motion can only be objected to as superfluous, and, therefore, all
farther debate is mere waste of time, without any prospect of advantage;
nor is any thing now necessary, but to review the motion, and correct
such expressions as may be thought inaccurate or improper.
That _all_ the half-pay officers are not able to enter into the service,
has been already shown, and, therefore, I should imagine, that, instead
of _all the officers_, we might very justly substitute _officers
properly qualified_.
Sir John BARNARD replied:--Sir, though I cannot discover the necessity
of any alteration, since it cannot be conceived that the senate can
advise impossibilities, yet since so much accuracy is affected, it may
be allowed that the word _all_ shall be left out, as seeming to imply
more than can be intended.
But the honourable gentleman is not, in my opinion, so happy in his
amendment, as in his objection; for the words _properly qualified_
convey to me no distinct idea. He that is qualified is, I suppose,
_properly qualified_, for I never heard of _improper qualifications_;
but if the word _properly_ be omitted, I have no objection to the
amendment.
This motion was agreed to.