XXV. 1798. CHAP. unfolded an important change in his financial policy, and made the first step towards a system of taxation, which, although more burdensome at the moment, is incomparably less oppressive in the end than that on which he had previously proceeded. He stated, that the time had now arrived when the system hitherto pursued, of providing for all extraordinary expenses by loan, could not be carried farther, without evident danger to public credit; that such a system, however applicable to a period when an extraordinary and forced effort was to be made to bring the war at once to a conclusion by means of foreign alliances, was unsuitable to the lengthened single-handed contest in which the nation was at last, to all appearance, engaged; that the great object now should be, to make the sum raised within the year as nearly as possible equal its expenditure, so as to entail no burden upon posterity; and therefore he proposed, instead of making the loan, as in former years, L.19,000,000, to make it only L.12,000,000, and raise the additional L.7,000,000 by means of trebling the assessed taxes on house-windows, carriages, and horses. By this means an addition of only L.8,000,000 would be made to the national debt, because L.4,000,000 would be paid off in the course of the year by the sinking fund; and, to pay off this L.8,000,000, he proposed to keep on the trebled assessed taxes a year longer; so that, at the expiration of that short period, no part of the debt then contracted would remain a burden on the nation. An admirable plan, and a near approach to the only safe system of finance, that of making the taxes raised within the year equal its expenditure, but which was speedily abandoned amidst the necessities Even in XXV. 1 1798. and improvidence of succeeding years. that very year, it was to a certain degree broken in upon; the assessed taxes produced only L.4,500,000 instead of L.9,000,000, as was expected; and the No. 6, Ap. expenses having increased to L.3,000,000 beyond the Ann. Reg. estimates, the loan was augmented to L.15,000,000, 182, 184, exclusive of L.2,000,000 for Ireland, besides Deb. xxxiii. L.3,000,000 raised by means of exchequer bills.'1 The same period gave birth to another great change in the military policy of Great Britain, fraught in its ultimate results with most important effects, both upon the turn of the public mind, and the final issue of the war. This was the volunteer system, and the general arming of the people. 1798. 211. Parl. 1042, 1066. ment of the Great Bri During the uncertainty which prevailed as to the destination of the great armaments preparing both in Establishthe harbours of the Channel and the Mediterranean, Volunteer the British Government naturally felt the greatest System in anxiety as to the means of providing for the national tain. defence, without incurring a ruinous expense by the augmentation of the regular army. The discipline of that force was admirable, and its courage unquestioned; but its numbers were limited, and it appeared highly desirable to provide some subsidiary body which might furnish supplies of men to fill the chasms which might be expected to occur in the troops of the line, in the event of a campaign taking place on the British shores. For this purpose the militia, which in fact was part of the regular force, was obviously insufficient; and under the pressure of the danger which was anticipated, Government, with the cordial approbation of the King, ventured upon the bold, but, as it turned out, wise and fortunate step, of allowing regiments of volunteers to be raised in every part of the kingdom. On the 11th April it was determined by the cabinet to take this decisive XXV. 1798. May 6. CHAP. step; and soon after a bill was brought into Parliament by the Secretary at War, Mr Dundas, to permit the regular militia to volunteer to go to Ireland, and to provide for the raising of volunteer corps in every part of the kingdom. The speech which he made on this occasion was worthy of an English minister. Not attempting to conceal the danger which menaced the country, he sought only to rouse the determined spirit which might resist it. "The truth," said he, "is undeniable, that the crisis which is approaching must determine whether we are any longer to be ranked as an independent nation. We must take the steps which are best calculated to meet it; let us provide for the safety of the infirm, the aged, the women, the children, and put arms into the hands of the people. We must fortify the menaced points, accumulate forces round the capital, affix on the church doors the names of those who have come forward as volunteers, and authorize members of Parliament to hold commissions in the army without vacating their seats. I am well aware of the danger of intrusting arms to the whole people without distinction. I am no stranger to the disaffection, albeit much diminished, which still lingers amongst us; I know well that, under the mask of pursuing only salutary reforms, many are still intent upon bringing about a revolution, and for that purpose are willing to enter into the closest correspondence with the avowed enemies of their country. But serious as is the danger of intrusting arms to a people embracing a considerable portion of such characters, it is nothing to the risk which we should run, if, when invaded by the enemy, we were unprepared with any adequate means of defence. I trust to the good sense of the great body of the people to resist the factious designs of such enemies to their country. CHAP. XXV. 1798. I trust that the patriotism by which the immense majority of them are animated will preclude them from ever using their arms, but for worthy purposes: I trust to the melancholy example which has been afforded in the neighbouring kingdom of the consequences of engaging in popular insurrection for a warning to all Britons who shall take up arms never to use them but in defence of their country, or the support of our venerable constitution." So obvious was the danger to national independence from the foreign invasion which was threatened, that the bill past the House without opposition; and in a few weeks an hundred and fifty thousand volunteers were in arms in Great Britain. Mr Sheridan, as he always did on such occasions, made a noble speech in support of Government. Another bill, which at the same time received the sanction of Parliament, authorized the King, in the event of an invasion, to call out the levy en masse of the population, conferred extraordinary powers upon lord-lieutenants and generals in command, for the seizure, on such a crisis, of horses and carriages, and provided for the indemnification, at the public expense, of such persons as might suffer in their properties in consequence of these measures. At the same time, to guard against the insidious system of French propagandism, the alien bill was re-en- ' Parl. Hist. acted, and the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act 1958, 1423, continued for another year.' The adoption of these measures indicates an important era in the war: that in which popular energy was first appealed to, in order to combat the Revolution, and governments, resting on the stubborn evidence of facts, confidently called upon their subjects to join with them in resisting a power which threatened to be equally destructive to the cottage and the xxxiii. 1429, 1454. XXV. 1798. Its great effects. CHAP. throne. It was a step worthy of England, the firstborn of modern freedom, to put arms into the hands of her people, to take the lead in the great contest of general liberty against democratic tyranny; and the event proved that the confidence of Government had not been misplaced. In no instance did the volunteer corps deviate from their duty, in none did they swerve from the principles of patriotism and loyalty which first brought them round the standard of their country. With the uniform which they put on they cast off all the vacillating or ambiguous feelings of former years; with the arms which they received they imbibed the firm resolution to defend the cause of England. Even in the great manufacturing towns, and the quarters where sedition had once been most prevalent, the volunteer corps formed so many centres of loyalty, which gradually expelled the former disaffection from their neighbourhood; and to nothing more than this well-timed and judicious step was the subsequent unanimity of the British Empire in the prosecution of the war to be ascribed. Had it been earlier adopted, it might have shaken the foundations of society and engendered all the horrors of civil war; subsequently, it would probably have come too late to develope the military energy requisite for success in the contest. Nor were the effects of this great change confined only to the British isles; it extended to foreign nations and distant times; it gave the first example of that touching developement of patriotic ardour which afterwards burned so strongly in Spain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia; and in the British volunteers of 1798 were found the model of those dauntless bands by which, fifteen years afterwards, the resurrection of the Fatherland was accomplished. While England was thus reaping the fruits, in the |