had suffered exceedingly, particularly during the two last years, from something more serious than mere apprehension of famine. A scarcity of grain had raised the price in this and other countries with which we trade, so high as would have been prohibitory to the use of it to a great proportion of the community, unless we had yielded to the dangerous policy of feeding the people at the pub. lic expence. "To alleviate the distress we had enacted in the course of two years that they should eat stale bread, and we have granted protecting duties which may bring here the limited quantity that can be had from other countries; in consequence of this we have raised the price abroad so high, that the present protecting duties will not indemnify the importer, particularly from America. "To obviate the recurrence of such distress, the country loudly called for a general inclosure and cultivation of the waste lands as a certain and only sure relief; and in answer to their prayers, we have just passed an act which it was obvious to every person who understood the subject, could do very little indeed towards the at tainment of the object in question. "He observed, that there was a disposition to do every thing that can be done for the relief of the country, which disposition was checked by an apprehension that certain persons in another place would give obstruction. It was also common to say, that no essential measure must be attempted; that we should endeavour to get a little at a time, and that by trying for more the whole would be lost, &c. He on the other hand begged leave to observe, that in the mean time the country might starve and be ruined; that he should ever reprobate such language, and that the members of that house would be unworthy their situations, if they were to be prevented from bringing forward measures that may save the nation from famine and bankruptcy. "If we should not succeed, the people would be at least satisfied we had done our duty, and the public dissatisfaction would fall only on those whose ill-founded opinions and views, whatever they may be, counteract the public welfare. 66 He then remarked that we must not be deterred from attempting to relieve the country by high sounding phrases, such as “ that a commutation for tithe in kind, would sap the foundation of all property:" those to whom that kind of argument is addressed, must must be imagined very ignorant and very weak; it seems to suppose that moduses, which are mere commutatious for tithe, had not existed for many centuries in this country; it seems to pass over the circumstance that the greater part of the acts of Inclosure do the same thing, and allot land for tithes. "He then added, that the distress of the country had been, and is great he therefore had much pleasure in learning, that several gentlemen had the intention of bringing forward something on the subject; it afforded him great satisfaction, thinking as he did, that it would be otherwise incumbent on him to offer some measure to parliament. "He flattered himself his Majesty's Ministers would introduce some great measure; he knew they had not neglected the subject in question, and that they would fairly consider the dangerous consequence of depending on other countries for subsistence, the uncertainty of it, and the ruinous expence if we could obtain the quantity of grain we wanted; "they will find," added his londship, "that on an average of the last ten years, we had paid 3,300,0001. annually to foreign countries for grain; and in the last year, namely 1800, we had paid upwards of 10,649,0001. which is more than double the heretofore boasted balance of trade in our favour. Yorg "He concluded by saying, that he should not then trouble the house further than by moving: "That in all bills for the inclosing or improving any waste or uncultivated lands, there be inserted a clause, empowering and directing the Commissioners to mark out or award unto the tithe owner, an allotment of such waste and uncultivated lands, to be once ring-fenced by the proprietors of the adjoining allotments thereof, in lieu of all tithes to arise from all such waste and uncultivated lands." "He observed, that this merely related to land that had never paid any tithe; and that he knew the cultivation of large tracts was prevented in consequence of the difficulties which arose with respect to the tithes.' Lord Sheffield is about sixty years of age. In re • Mr. Bragge the brother-in-law of the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, having objected the late period of the session, Lord Sheffield withdrew his motion. spect spect to person, his lordship is rather below the middle size, but he possesses a keen and animated aspect, and seems formed by nature for both mental and corporeal activity. RIGHT HON. WILLIAM WINDHAṀ. THE lives of our contemporaries are undoubtedly interesting, but those of the statesmen who live during the same period with ourselves, must be allowed to be edifying in no common degree. It is to them we are indebted for the prosperity or the misfortunes of our country; for the extension or diminution of our territories; for the adoption or rejection of odious imposts-in short, for all that can endear, or render life miserable. Of these men we are proud when they support the fame, the dignity, the glory of our nai tion; when they repress arbitrary power; when they vindicate expiring liberty; when they die with, or only live to restore the lost freedom of their native land. To such we give a generous latitude, and a liberal interpretation, in respect to their conduct; they may pause during an awful crisis; they may oppose their former friends; they may even league with their former enernies-and yet still possess the esteem of their countrymen. Of this indeed, they can be deprived only by the most flagrant inconsistency; for they may change their opinions without losing our confidence, provided they do not profit by the change. It is then, and not until then, that the pseudo-patriot incurs our suspicions, and we begin to consider his conduct at least equivocal. Mr. Windham was born in, and is descended from ancestors who have been long settled in the county of Norfolk, in which he possesses a small patrimony. His family appears to have sided with the Whigs, and to have given its aid in forwarding one of the darling schemes of that party-the establishment of a national militia. One of his near relatives accepted a commission as Colonel of the battalion of his native district, and seems to have been particularly anxious to establish such a system of discipline as should render the corps respectable. In order to achieve this, he actually published a treatise on the subject in 1759, and in the preface has given a curious and interesting account of the improvements made in the fire arms used by the moderns.* 6 After * We shall present the reader with a short quotation from the introduction to Colonel Windham's Plan of Discipline,' composed for the use of the militia of the county of Norfolk, and pub lished in 1759: "The hatchet used by the Franks or ancient French, was used as a missile weapon, they throwing it in the same manner as the North American Indians do theirs, which they call a tomahawk. "The Gascons and Genoese were excellent cross bow-men, The Swiss owed their victories to their strength and skill in the use of the pike, halberd, and espadon, or two-handed sword; and the victories of Cressy, Poictiers, and Agincourt, will occasion the valour and skill of the English archers to be transmitted down to the latest posterity. "After the invention of powder, the Spaniards were the first who armed part of their foot with muskets and barquebusses, and After receiving the usual preliminary education at a public school, young Windham was sent to Oxford, and mixed them with their pikes. In this they were soon imitated by most other nations; though the English had not laid aside. their long bow, and generally taken to the use of fire-arms, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. "The first muskets were very heavy, and could not be fired without a rest; they had match locks, and barrels of a wide bore that carried a large ball and charge of powder, and did execution at a great distance. The musketeers on a march carried only their rests and ammunition, and had boys to bear their muskets after them, for which they were allowed great additional pay. They were very slow in loading, not only occasioned by the unwieldiness of the pieces, and because they carried powder and balls se parate, but from the time it took to prepare and adjust the match; so that their fire was not near so brisk as ours is now. Afterwards a lighter kind of match-lock musket came into use, and they carried their ammunition in bandeliers, which were broad belts that came over the shoulder, to which were hung several little cases of wood covered with leather, each containing a charge of powder; the balls they carried loose in their pouch, and they had also a priming-horn hanging by their side. Match-locks were, about the beginning of this century, universally disused in Europe, and the troops were armed with fire-locks, to which much about the same time the bayonet being added, pikes also were laid aside; which later change, whether it was for the better or not, is a point that still admits of dispute amongst the best military writers, who are divided in their opinions about it, though most of them dis approve of it. "The old English writers call those large muskets calivers; the harquebuze was a lighter piece that could be fired without a rest. The match-lock was fired by a match fixed by a kind of tongs in a serpentine or cock, which by pulling the trigger, was brought down with great quickness upon the priming in the pan, over which there was a sliding cover, which was drawn back by hand |