[DEBATE ON THE BILL FOR THE PUNISHMENT OF MUTINY AND DESERTION.]
The house being resolved into a committee for the consideration of the
bill for the punishment of mutiny and desertion, and for the better
payment of the army and their quarters, etc. sir William YONGE desired
that the twentieth and twenty-sixth clauses of the late act might be
read, which were read as follows:
XX. It is hereby enacted, that the officers and soldiers, so quartered
and billeted, shall be received by the owners of the inns,
livery-stables, ale-houses, victualling-houses, and other houses in
which they are allowed to be quartered and billeted by this act; and
shall pay such reasonable prices as shall be appointed, from time to
time, by the justices of the peace, in their general and
quarter-sessions of each county, city, or division, within their
respective jurisdictions: and the justices of the peace aforesaid, are
hereby empowered and required to set and appoint, in their general or
quarter-sessions aforesaid, such reasonable rates, for all necessary
provisions for such officers and soldiers, for one or more nights, in
the several cities, towns, villages and other places, which they shall
come to in their march, or which shall be appointed for their residence
and quarters.
XXVI. That the quarters, both of officers and soldiers in Great Britain,
may be duly paid and satisfied, be it enacted, that every officer, to
whom it belongs to receive the pay or subsistence-money, either for a
whole regiment, or particular troops and companies, shall immediately,
upon each receipt of every particular sum, on account of pay or
subsistence, give publick notice thereof to all persons keeping inns, or
other places where officers or soldiers are quartered by virtue of this
act: also appoint them and others to repair to their quarters, within
four days at the farthest, after the receipt of the same, to declare the
accounts or debts (if any shall be) between them and the officers and
soldiers quartered in their respective houses: which accounts the said
officer or officers are hereby required immediately to discharge, before
any part of the said pay or subsistence be distributed to the officers
or soldiers: provided the said accounts exceed not for a commission
officer of horse, under a captain, for _one day's diet and small beer_,
two shillings; for one commission officer of dragoons, under a captain,
one shilling; for one commission officer of foot, under a captain one
shilling; and for hay and straw, for one horse, sixpence; for one
dragoon or light horseman's diet and small beer, each day sixpence, and
hay and straw for his horse, sixpence; and also not to exceed
_fourpence_ a-day, for one _foot soldier's diet and small beer_.
He then spoke to the following effect:--Sir, whether there is any real
difficulty in the clauses which you have now heard read, or whether
there are such passages as may be easily understood by those who have no
interest to mistake them, and which are only clouded by an artificial
obscurity, whether they are in themselves capable of different meanings,
or whether avarice or poverty have produced unreasonable
interpretations, and found ambiguities only because they were determined
not to be disappointed in their search; whether this law is disobeyed
because it is misunderstood, or only misunderstood by those who have
resolved to disobey it, the committee must determine.
It has been for many years understood that innholders and keepers of
publick-houses were obliged by this law to supply soldiers quartered
upon them with diet and small beer, and hay and straw for their horses,
at such rates as are mentioned in the act; nor can I discover that these
clauses admit of any other interpretation, or that any other could be
intended by the senate by which it was enacted. The pay of the soldiers,
sir, was well known to those who gave their consent to this law, it was
intended by them that the soldiers should be supplied with necessaries,
and it could not be meant that they should pay for them more than they
received; they, therefore, established the rate at which they were to be
furnished, and fixed the highest rate which the wages of a soldier allow
him to pay.
This interpretation was, as I suppose, from its apparent consonance to
reason, universally allowed, till the inhabitants of Ledbury, whither
soldiers had been sent to suppress a riot and enforce the laws, found
their apprehensions so sharpened by their malice, that they discovered
in the act an ambiguity, which had, till that time, escaped the
penetration of the most sagacious, and, upon comparison of one
circumstance with another, found themselves under no obligation to give
any assistance to the soldiers.
They therefore, sir, not only refused to afford them victuals at the
accustomed rates, but proceeding from one latitude of interpretation to
another, at length denied them not only the privilege of diet, but the
use of kitchen utensils, to dress the provisions which they bought for
themselves, and at last denied their claim to the fire itself.
The soldiers, exasperated not only at the breach of their established
and uncontested privileges, but at the privation of the necessaries of
life, began to think of methods more speedy and efficacious than those
of arguments and remonstrances, and to form resolutions of procuring by
force, what, in their opinions, was only by force withheld from them.
What might have been the event of this controversy, to what extremities
a contest about things so necessary might have been carried, how wide
the contest might have spread, or how long it might have lasted, we may
imagine, but cannot determine; had not a speedy decision been procured,
its consequences might have been fatal to multitudes, and a great part
of the nation been thrown into confusion.
Having received an account of the affair from the officers who commanded
at that place, I consulted the attorney-general what was the design of
the law, and the extent of the obligation enforced by it, and was
answered by him, that the sums which were to be paid for the diet of the
men, and the hay and straw for the horses, being specified, it must
necessarily be intended, by the legislature, that no higher rates should
be demanded;--that the power granted to the justices of peace was wholly
in favour of the soldier, and that they might lessen the payment at
discretion in places of uncommon cheapness, or years of extraordinary
plenty, but could not increase it on any occasion.
Another dispute, sir, of the like nature was occasioned by the late
scarcity at Wakefield, where the justices, upon the application of the
innkeepers, made use of the authority which they supposed to have been
reposed in them by the act, and raised the price of hay and straw to
eight-pence, which the soldiers were not able to pay, without suffering
for want of victuals.
On this occasion, likewise, I was applied to, and upon consulting the
present attorney-general, received the same answer as before; and
transmitting his opinion to the place from whence I received the
complaint, it had so much regard paid to it, that the additional demand
was thence-forward remitted.
The letters which those two learned lawyers sent to me on this subject I
have now in my hand; and hope their opinion will be thought sufficient
authority for the interpretation of an act of the senate.
Nor is their authority, sir, however great, so strong a proof of the
justness of this interpretation, as the reasonableness, or rather
necessity of admitting it. The only argument that can be produced
against it, is the hardship imposed by it on the innholder, who, as it
is objected, must be obliged by the law, so understood, to furnish the
soldiers with provisions for a price at which he cannot afford them.
But let it be considered, how much more easily the landlord can furnish
them at this price, than they can provide for themselves, and the
difficulty will immediately vanish. If soldiers are necessary, they must
necessarily be supported, and it appears, upon reflection, that their
pay will not support them by any other method. If they are obliged to
buy their victuals, they must likewise buy fire and implements to dress
them; and what is still a greater hardship, they must sell them, and buy
new, at every change of their quarters; if this is impossible, it will
be allowed not to be the meaning of the senate, upon whose wisdom it
would be a censure too severe to suppose them capable of enacting
impossibilities.
But to the innholder, sir, whose utensils are always in use, and whose
fire is always burning, the diet of a soldier costs only the original
price paid to the butcher; and, in years of common plenty, may be
afforded, without loss, at the price mentioned in the act. It cannot,
indeed, be denied, that, at present, every soldier is a burden to the
family on which he is quartered, in many parts of the kingdom; but, it
may be reasonably hoped, that the present scarcity will quickly cease,
and that provisions will fall back to their former value; and even,
amidst all the complaints with which the severity and irregularity of
the late seasons have filled the nation, there are many places where
soldiers may be maintained at the stated rates, with very little
hardship to their landlords.
However, sir, as this interpretation of the act, though thus supported,
both by authority and reason, has been disputed and denied; as some
lawyers may be of a different opinion from those whom I have consulted;
and as it is not likely that the practice, thus interrupted, will now be
complied with as a prescription; I think it necessary to propose, that
the price of a soldier's diet be more explicitly ascertained, that no
room may remain for future controversies.
Mr. SANDYS then rose, and spoke as follows:--Sir, I am very far from
thinking the authority of these learned gentlemen, whose letters are
produced, incontrovertible proof of the justness of an interpretation of
an act of the senate, where that interpretation is not in itself
warranted by reason, nor consistent with the preservation or enjoyment
of property. Much less shall I agree to support their interpretation by
a new law; or establish, by an act of the legislature, a kind of
oppression, for which, however tacitly submitted to, nothing could be
pleaded hitherto but custom.
The burden, sir, of a standing army, is already too heavy to be much
longer supported, nor ought we to add weight to it by new impositions;
it surely much better becomes the representatives of the nation to
attend to the complaints of their constituents; and where they are found
to arise from real grievances, to contrive some expedient for
alleviating their calamities.
A heavy and dreadful calamity, sir, lies now, in a particular manner,
upon the people; the calamity of famine, one of the severest scourges of
providence, has filled the whole land with misery and lamentation; and,
surely, nothing can be more inhuman than to choose out this season of
horrour for new encroachments on their privileges, and new invasions of
the rights of nature, the dominion of their own houses, and the
regulation of their own tables.
The honourable gentleman, sir, has mentioned places where provisions, as
he says, are still to be bought at easy rates. For my part, I am fixed
in no such happy corner of the kingdom; I see nothing but scarcity, and
hear nothing but complaints; and shall, therefore, be very far from
admitting now such methods of supporting the army, as were thought too
burdensome in times of plenty; nor will combine in laying a new tax upon
any class of my countrymen, when they are sinking under an enormous load
of imposts, and in want of the necessaries of life.
Sir William YONGE replied, in the manner following:--Sir, nothing is
more easy than outcry and exaggeration; nor any thing less useful for
the discovery of truth, or the establishment of right. The most
necessary measures may often admit of very florid exclamations against
them, and may furnish very fruitful topicks of invective.
When our liberties, sir, are endangered, or our country invaded, it may
be very easy, when it is proposed that we should have recourse to our
swords for security, to bewail, in pathetick language, the miseries of
war, to describe the desolation of cities, the waste of kingdoms, the
insolence of victory, and the cruelty of power inflamed by hostilities.
Yet to what will those representations contribute, but to make that
difficult which yet cannot be avoided, and embarrass measures which
must, however, be pursued.
Such, sir, appear to me to be the objections made to the methods now
proposed of providing necessaries for the soldiers; methods not eligible
for their own sake, but which ought not to be too loudly condemned, till
some better can be substituted; for why should the publick be alarmed
with groundless apprehensions? or why should we make those laws which
our affairs oblige us to enact, less agreeable to the people by partial
representations?
In the discussion of this question, sir, is to be considered whether
soldiers are to be supported, and whether it will be more proper to
maintain them by the method of ascertaining the rates at which they are
to be supplied, or by increasing their pay.
One of these two ways it is necessary to take; the provisions are
already fixed at as high a price as their pay will allow; if, therefore,
they are expected to pay more, their wages must be increased.
For my part, I shall comply with either method; though I cannot but
think it my duty to declare, that, in my opinion, it is safer to fix the
price of provisions, which must sink in their value, than to raise the
pay of the army, which may never afterwards be reduced.
Mr. GYBBON then spoke, to this effect:--Sir, I agree with the honourable
gentleman, that if soldiers are necessary, we must make provision for
their support. This is indisputably certain; but it is no less certain,
that where soldiers are necessary, restraints and regulations are
necessary likewise, to preserve those from being insulted and plundered
by them, who maintain them for the sake of protection.
The usefulness, sir, of this caution seems not to be known, or not
regarded, by the gentleman whose proposal gave occasion to this debate;
for, by enacting laws in general terms, as he seems to advise, we should
leave the unhappy innkeeper wholly at the mercy of his guests, who might
plunder and insult him under the protection of the legislature, might
riot, as in a conquered country, and say, "To this treatment you are
subjected by the determination of the senate."
The unhappy man, sir, could have no prospect, either of quiet or safety,
but by gratifying all the expectations of his masters; returning
civilities for insolence, and receiving their commands with the same
submission that is paid in capitulating towns to the new garrison.
If it be necessary to ascertain the price, is it not necessary, at the
same time, to ascertain the species and quantity of provisions to be
allowed for it? Is a soldier to fatten on delicacies, and to revel in
superfluities, for fourpence a-day? Ought not some limits to be set to
his expectations, and some restraints prescribed to his appetite? Is he
to change his fare, with all the capriciousness of luxury, and relieve,
by variety, the squeamishness of excess?
Such demands as these, sir, may be thought ludicrous and trifling, by
those who do not reflect on the insolence of slaves in authority, who do
not consider that the license of a military life is the chief inducement
that brings volunteers into the army; an inducement which would, indeed,
make all impresses superfluous, were this proposal to be adopted: for
how readily would all the lazy and voluptuous engage in a state of life
which would qualify them to live upon the labour of others, and to be
profuse without expense?
Our army may, by this method, be increased; but the number of those by
whom they are to be maintained, must quickly diminish: for, by exaction
and oppression, the poorer innkeepers must quickly become bankrupts; and
the soldiers that lose their quarters, must be added to the dividend
allotted to the more wealthy, who, by this additional burden will soon
be reduced to the same state, and then our army must subsist upon their
pay, because they will no longer have it in their power to increase it
by plunder.
It will then be inevitably necessary to divide the army from the rest of
the community, and to build barracks for their reception; an expedient
which, though it may afford present ease to the nation, cannot be put in
practice without danger to our liberties.
The reason, for which so many nations have been enslaved by standing
armies, is nothing more than the difference of a soldier's condition
from that of other men. Soldiers are governed by particular laws, and
subject to particular authority; authority which, in the manner of its
operation, has scarcely any resemblance of the civil power. Thus, they
soon learn to think themselves exempt from all other laws; of which they
either do not discover the use, and, therefore, easily consent to
abolish them; or envy the happiness of those who are protected by them,
and so prevail upon themselves to destroy those privileges which have no
other effect, with regard to them, but to aggravate their own
dependence.
These, sir, are the natural consequences of a military subjection; and
if these consequences are not always speedily produced by it, they must
be retarded by that tenderness which constant intercourse with the rest
of the nation produces, by the exchange of reciprocal acts of kindness,
and by the frequent inculcation of the wickedness of contributing to the
propagation of slavery, and the subversion of the rights of nature;
inculcations which cannot be avoided by men who live in constant
fellowship with their countrymen.
But soldiers, shut up in a barrack, excluded from all conversation with
such as are wiser and honester than themselves, and taught that nothing
is a virtue but implicit obedience to the commands of their officer,
will soon become foreigners in their own country, and march against the
defenders of their constitution, with the same alacrity as against an
army of invaders ravaging the coasts; they will lose all sense of social
duty, and of social happiness, and think nothing illustrious but to
enslave and destroy.
So fatal, sir, will be the effects of an establishment of barracks, or
petty garrisons, in this kingdom; and, therefore, as barracks must be
built when innkeepers are ruined, and our concurrence with this proposal
must produce their ruin, I hope it-will not be necessary to prove by any
other argument, that the motion ought to be rejected.
Mr. PELHAM spoke next, in terms to this purpose:--Sir, though I am not
inclined, by loud exaggerations and affected expressions of tenderness,
to depress the courage or inflame the suspicions of the people, to teach
them to complain of miseries which they do not feel, or ward against ill
designs, which were never formed, yet no man is more really solicitous
for their happiness, or more desirous of removing every real cause of
fear and occasion of hardships.
This affection to the people, an affection steady, regular, and
unshaken, has always prompted me to prefer their real to their seeming
interest, and rather to consult the security of their privileges than
the gratification of their passions; it has hitherto determined me to
vote for such a body of troops, as may defend us against sudden inroads
and wanton insults, and now incites me to propose that some efficacious
method may be struck out for their support, without exasperating either
the soldiers or their landlords by perpetual wrangles, or adding to the
burden of a military establishment the necessity of contentions in
courts of law.
I know not with what view those have spoken, by whom the proposal first
made has been opposed; they have, indeed, produced objections, some of
which are such as may be easily removed, and others such as arise from
the nature of things, and ought not, therefore, to be mentioned, because
they have no other tendency than to inflame the minds of those that hear
them against an army, at a time when it is allowed to be necessary, and
prove only what was never denied, that no human measures are absolutely
perfect, and that it is often impossible to avoid a greater evil, but by
suffering a less.
The question before us, sir, is in its own nature so simple, so little
connected with circumstances that may distract our attention, or induce
different men to different considerations, that when I reflect upon it,
I cannot easily conceive by what art it can be made the subject of long
harangues, or how the most fruitful imagination can expatiate upon it.
It is already admitted that an army is necessary; the pay of that army
is already established; the accidental scarcity of forage and victuals
is such, that the pay is not sufficient to maintain them; how then must
the deficiency be supplied? It has been proposed, either to fix the
price of provisions with respect to them, or to advance their wages in
some proportion to the price of provisions. Both these methods seem to
meet with disapprobation, and yet the army is to be supported.
Those who reason thus, do surely not expect to be answered, or at least
expect from a reply no other satisfaction than that of seeing the time
of the session wasted, and the administration harassed with trivial
delays; for what can be urged with any hope of success to him who will
openly deny contradictory propositions, who will neither move nor stand
still, who will neither disband an army nor support it?
Whether these gentlemen conceive that an army may subsist without
victuals till the time of scarcity is over, or whether they have raised
those forces only to starve them, I am not sagacious enough to
conjecture, but shall venture to observe, that if they have such a
confidence in the moderation and regularity of the soldiers, as to
imagine that they will starve with weapons in their hands, that they
will live within the sight of full tables, and languish with hunger, and
perish for want of necessaries, rather than diminish the superfluities
of others, they ought for ever to cease their outcries about the
licentiousness, insolence, and danger of a standing army.
But, not to sink into levity unworthy of this assembly, may I be
permitted to hint that these arts of protracting our debates, are by no
means consistent with the reasons for which we are assembled, and that
it is a much better proof, both of ability and integrity, to remove
objections, than to raise them, and to facilitate, than to retard, the
business of the publick.
The proposal made at first was only to elucidate a law which had been
regularly observed for fifty years, and to remove such ambiguities as
tended only to embarrass the innholders, not to relieve them.
To this many objections have been made, and much declamation has been
employed to display the hardships of maintaining soldiers, but no better
method has been yet discovered, nor do I expect that any will be started
not attended with greater difficulties.
In all political questions, questions too extensive to be fully
comprehended by speculative reason, experience is the guide which a wise
man will follow with the least distrust, and it is no trivial
recommendation of the present method, that it has been so long pursued
without any formidable inconvenience or loud complaints.
Hardships, even when real, are alleviated by long custom; we bear any
present uneasiness with less regret, as we less remember the time in
which we were more happy: at least, by long acquaintance with any
grievance we gain this advantage, that we know it in its whole extent,
that it cannot be aggravated by our imagination, and that there is no
room for suspecting that any misery is yet behind more heavy than that
which we have already borne.
Such is the present state of the practice now recommended to this
assembly, a practice to which the innkeepers have long submitted, and
found it at least tolerable, to which they knew themselves exposed when
they took out a license for the exercise of that profession, and which
they consider as a tax upon them, to be balanced against the advantages
which they expect from their employment.
This tax cannot be denied at present to be burdensome in a very uncommon
degree, but this weight has not been of long continuance, and it may be
reasonably hoped that it will now be made every day lighter. It is,
indeed, true, that no unnecessary impositions ought to be laid upon the
nation even for a day; and if any gentleman can propose a method by
which this may be taken off or alleviated, I shall readily comply with
his proposal, and concur in the establishment of new regulations.
With regard to barracks, I cannot deny that they are justly names of
terrour to a free nation, that they tend to make an army seem part of
our constitution, and may contribute to infuse into the soldiers a
disregard of their fellow-subjects, and an indifference about the
liberties of their country; but I cannot discover any connexion between
a provision for the support of soldiers in publick-houses, in a state of
constant familiarity with their countrymen, and the erection of
barracks, by which they will be, perhaps for ever, separated from them,
nor can discover any thing in the method of supporting them now
recommended that does not tend rather to the promotion of mutual good
offices, and the confirmation of friendship and benevolence.
The advocate CAMPBELL next spoke, in substance as follows:--Sir, whence
the impropriety of raising objections to any measures that are proposed
is imagined to arise I am unable to discover, having hitherto admitted
as an incontrovertible opinion, that it is the duty of every member of
this assembly to deliver, without reserve, his sentiments upon any
question which is brought before him, and to approve or censure,
according to his conviction.
If it be his duty, sir, to condemn what he thinks dangerous or
inconvenient, it seems by no means contrary to his duty, to show the
reason of his censure, or to lay before the house those objections which
he cannot surmount by his own reflection. It certainly is not necessary
to admit implicitly all that is asserted; and to deny, or disapprove
without reason, can he no proof of duty, or of wisdom; and how shall it
be known, that he who produces no objections, acts from any other
motives, than private malevolence, discontent, or caprice?
Nor is it, sir, to be imputed as a just reason for censure to those who
have opposed the motion, that no other measures have been offered by
them to the consideration of the committee. It is necessary to demolish
a useless or shattered edifice, before a firm and habitable building can
be erected in its place: the first step to the amendment of a law is to
show its defects; for why should any alteration be made where no
inconveniency is discovered?
To the chief objection that was offered, no answer has yet been made,
nor has the assembly been informed how the innkeeper shall be able to
discover when he has paid the tax which this law lays upon him. This is,
indeed, a tax of a very particular kind, a tax without limits, and to be
levied at the discretion of him for whose benefit it is paid. Soldiers
quartered upon these terms, are more properly raising contributions in
an enemy's country, than receiving wages in their own.
Is it intended, by this motion, that the innkeepers shall judge what
ought to be allowed the soldier for his money? I do not see, then, that
any alteration is proposed in the present condition of our army; for who
has ever refused to sell them food for their money at the common price,
or what necessity is there for a law to enforce a practice equally to
the advantage of all parties? If it be proposed that the soldier shall
judge for himself, that he shall set what value he shall think fit on
his own money, and that he shall be at once the interpreter and
executioner of this new law, the condition of the innkeeper will then be
such as no slave in the mines of America can envy, and such as he will
gladly quit for better treatment under the most arbitrary and oppressive
government.
Nor will the insolence of the soldier, thus invested with unlimited
authority, thus entitled to implicit obedience, and exalted above the
rest of mankind, by seeing his claim only bounded by his own moderation,
be confined to his unhappy landlord. Every guest will become subject to
his intrusion, and the passenger must be content to want his dinner,
whenever the lord of the inn shall like it better than his own.
That these apprehensions, sir, are not groundless, may be proved from
the conduct of these men, even when the law was not so favourable to
their designs; some of them have already claimed the sole dominion of
the houses in which they have been quartered, and insulted persons of
very high rank, and whom our ancient laws had intended to set above the
insults of a turbulent soldier. They have seen the provisions which they
had ordered taken away by force, partly, perhaps, to please the appetite
of the invader, and partly to gratify his insolence, and give him an
opportunity of boasting among his comrades, how successfully he
blustered.
If it be necessary, sir, to insert a new clause in the act to prevent
lawsuits, which, however advantageous they may sometimes be to me, I
shall always be ready to obviate, it is surely proper to limit the claim
of one party as well as that of the other, for how else is the ambiguity
taken away? The difficulty may be, indeed, transferred, but is by no
means removed, and the innkeeper must wholly repose himself upon the
lenity and justice of the soldier, or apply to the courts of law for the
interpretation of the act.
The question before us is said to be so free from perplexity, that it
can scarcely give occasion for harangues or disputations; and, indeed,
it cannot but be allowed, that the controversy may soon be brought to a
single point, and I think nothing more is necessary than to inquire, if
innholders shall be obliged to provide victuals for soldiers at a stated
price, what, and how much the soldier shall demand.
The power of raising money at pleasure, has been hitherto denied to our
kings, and surely we ought not to place that confidence in the lowest,
that has been refused to the most exalted of mankind, or invest our
soldiers with power, which neither the most warlike of our monarchs
could constrain us, nor the most popular allure us to grant.
The power now proposed to be granted, is nothing less than the power of
levying money, or what is exactly equivalent, the power of raising the
money in their own hands, to any imaginary value. A soldier may, if this
motion be complied with, demand for a penny, what another man must
purchase at forty times that price. While this is the state of our
property, it is surely not very necessary to raise armies for the
defence of it; for why should we preserve it from one enemy only to
throw it into the hands of another, equally rapacious, equally
merciless, and only distinguished from foreign invaders by this
circumstance, that he received from our own hands the authority by which
he plunders us.
Having thus evinced the necessity of determining the soldier's
privileges, and the innkeeper's rights, I think it necessary to
recommend to this assembly an uncommon degree of attention to the
regulation of our military establishment, which is become not only more
burdensome to our fellow-subjects by the present famine, but by the
increase of our forces; an increase which the nation will not behold
without impatience, unless they be enabled to discern for what end they
have been raised.
The people of this nation are, for very just reasons, displeased, even
with the appearance of a standing army, and surely it is not prudent to
exasperate them, by augmenting the troops in a year of famine, and
giving them, at the same time, new powers of extortion and oppression.
Mr. WINNINGTON spoke to this purpose:--Sir, I have heard nothing in this
debate, but doubts and objections, which afford no real information, nor
tend to the alleviation of those grievances, which are so loudly
lamented.
It is not sufficient to point out inconveniencies, or to give striking
representations of the hardships to which the people are exposed; for
unless some better expedient can be proposed, or some method discovered
by which we may receive the benefits, without suffering the
disadvantages of the present practice, how does it appear that these
hardships, however severe, are not inseparable from our present
condition, and such as can only be removed by exposing ourselves to more
formidable evils?
As no remedy, sir, has been proposed by those who appear dissatisfied
with the present custom, it is reasonable to imagine that none will be
easily discovered; and, therefore, I cannot but think it reasonable that
the motion should be complied with. By it no new imposition is intended,
nor any thing more than the establishment of a practice which has
continued for more than fifty years, and never, except on two occasions,
been denied to be legal. It is only proposed that the senate should
confirm that interpretation of the act which has been almost universally
received; that they should do what can produce no disturbance, because
it will make no alterations; but may prevent them, because it may
prevent any attempts of innovation, or diversity of opinions.
Sir John BARNARD spoke next, to the following effect:--Sir, whether the
interpretation of the act which is now contended for, has been
universally admitted, it is impossible to know; but it is at least
certain, that the practice which is founded upon it, has in many places
never been followed, nor, indeed, can it be made general without great
impropriety.
Many of those, sir, who are styled keepers of publick-houses, and on
whom soldiers are quartered under that denomination, have no conveniency
of furnishing provisions, because they never sell them; such are many of
the keepers of livery stables, among whom it is the common method to pay
soldiers a small weekly allowance, instead of lodging them in their
houses, a lodging being all which they conceive themselves obliged to
provide, and all that the soldiers have hitherto required; nor can we
make any alteration in this method without introducing the license and
insolence of soldiers into private houses; into houses hitherto
unacquainted with any degree of riot, incivility, or uproar.
The reason for which publick-houses are assigned for the quarters of
soldiers, is partly the greater conveniency of accommodating them in
families that subsist, by the entertainment of strangers, and partly the
nature of their profession, which, by exposing them to frequent
encounters with the rude and the debauched, enables them either to bear
or repress the insolence of a soldier.
But with regard, sir, to the persons whom I have mentioned, neither of
these reasons have any place; they have not, from their daily
employment, any opportunities of furnishing soldiery with beds or
victuals, nor, by their manner of life, are adapted to support intrusion
or struggle with perverseness. Nor can I discover why any man should
force soldiers into their houses, who would not willingly admit them
into his own.
Mr. COCKS spoke to this effect:--Sir, the practice mentioned by the
honourable gentleman, I know to be generally followed by all those that
keep alehouses in the suburbs of this metropolis, who pay the soldiers
billeted on them a composition for their lodging, nor ever see them but
when they come to receive it; so far are they from imagining that they
can claim their whole subsistence at any stated price.
It is apparent, therefore, that by admitting this motion, we should not
confirm a law already received, but establish a new regulation unknown
to the people; that we should lay a tax upon the nation, and send our
soldiers to collect it.
General WADE rose, and spoke to this purpose:--Sir, I have been long
conversant with military affairs; and, therefore, may perhaps be able to
give a more exact account, from my own knowledge, of the antiquity and
extent of this practice, than other gentlemen have had, from their way
of life; an opportunity of obtaining.
It was, sir, in the reign of king William, the constant method by which
the army was supported, as may be easily imagined by those who reflect,
that it was common for the soldiers to remain for eight or ten months
unpaid, and that they had, therefore, no possibility of providing for
themselves the necessaries of life. Their pay never was received in
those times by themselves, but issued in exchequer bills for large sums,
which the innkeepers procured to be exchanged and divided among
themselves, in proportion to their debts.
Such was the practice, sir, in that reign, which has been generally
followed to this time, and the rates then fixed have not since been
changed; and as no inconveniency has arisen from this method, I can
discover no reason against confirming and continuing it.
Mr. PULTKNEY spoke next, in the manner following:--Sir, those that have
spoken in defence of the motion, have accused their opponents, with
great confidence, of declaiming without arguments, and of wasting the
time of the session in a useless repetition of objections. I do not,
indeed, wonder that the objections which have been raised should have
given some disgust, for who can be pleased with hearing his opponent
produce arguments which he cannot answer? But surely the repetitions may
be excused; for an objection is to be urged in every debate till it is
answered, or is discovered to be unanswerable.
But what, sir, have those urged in defence of their own opinions, who so
freely animadvert upon the reasonings of others? What proofs, sir, have
they given of the superiority of their own abilities, of the depth of
their researches, or the acuteness of their penetration?
They have not produced one argument in favour of their motion, but that
it is founded on custom; they have not discovered, however wise and
sagacious, that it is always necessary to inquire whether a custom be
good or bad; for surely without such inquiry no custom ought to be
confirmed. The motion which they would support, is, indeed, useless in
either case, for a good custom will continue of itself, and one that is
bad ought not to be continued. It is the business of the legislature to
reform abuses, and eradicate corruptions, not to give them new strength
by the sanction of a law.
It has been urged, sir, that the law in reality exists already in that
the act has been interpreted in this sense by the attorney general; and
that his interpretation is generally received. This is then the state of
the question: if the practice, founded upon this sense of the act,
generally prevails, there is no need of a new clause to enforce what is
already complied with; if it does not prevail, all that has been urged
in defence of the motion falls to the ground.
I do not doubt, sir, that this custom has been received without many
exceptions, and therefore think it ought still to remain a custom,
rather than be changed into a law; because it will be complied with as a
custom, where there are no obstacles to the observation of it; and it
ought not to be enforced by law, where it is inconvenient and
oppressive.
While the soldier, sir, is moderate in his demands, and peaceable and
modest in his behaviour, the innkeeper will cheerfully furnish him even
more than he can afford at the stated price; and certainly, rudeness,
insolence, and unreasonable expectations, may justly be punished by the
forfeiture of some conveniencies. Thus, sir, the innkeeper will preserve
some degree of authority in his own house, a place where the laws of
nature give every man dominion, and the soldier will continue a regular
and inoffensive member of civil society.
The absurdity of leaving the soldier at large in his demands, and
limiting the price which the innkeeper is to require, has been already
exposed beyond the possibility of reply; nor, indeed, has the least
attempt been made to invalidate this objection; for it has been passed
in silence by those who have most zealously espoused the motion. The
account given by the honourable gentleman of the reason for which this
regulation was first introduced in the reign of king William, is
undoubtedly just; but it proves, sir, that there is no necessity of
continuing it; for the soldiers are now constantly paid, and therefore
need not that assistance from the innkeeper, which was absolutely
requisite when they were sometimes six months without money.
It has been urged, sir, with great importunity and vehemence, that some
expedient should be proposed in the place of this, which so many
gentlemen who have spoken on this occasion seem inclined to reject, and
which, indeed, cannot be mentioned without contempt or abhorrence. That
the soldiers should know, as well as their landlord, their own rights,
is undoubtedly just, as well as that they should have some certain means
of procuring the necessaries of life; it may, therefore, be proper to
enact, that the innkeeper shall either furnish them with diet at the
established rates, or permit them to dress the victuals which they shall
buy for themselves, with his fire and utensils, and allow them candles,
salt, vinegar, and pepper. By this method the soldiers can never be much
injured by the incivility of their landlord, nor can the innkeeper be
subjected to arbitrary demands. The soldier will still gain, by decency
and humanity, greater conveniencies than he can procure for himself by
his pay alone, and all opportunities of oppression on either side will,
in a great measure, be taken away.
I cannot but express my hopes that this method will be generally
approved. Those that have opposed the establishment of an army will be
pleased to see it made less grievous to the people; and those that have
declared in its favour, ought surely to adopt, without opposition, any
measures, by the pursuit of which it may be borne with fewer complaints,
and less reluctance.
[The consideration of this question was deferred, and the chairman
having moved for leave to sit again, it was resolved to proceed on this
business upon the next day but one, in a committee of the whole house.]