pleasure of those in power, without an adequate
compensation. In the maturity to which their uneasiness had now risen
from a continuance of misery, they would be still more impatient under
an attempt of a similar nature.

It was not, he said, the intention of his remarks to discourage a
reform, but to show the necessity of guarding against the ill effects
which might otherwise attend it, by making an ample provision both for
the officers who should remain in the service, and for those who
should be reduced. This should be the basis of the plan; and without
it, the most mischievous consequences were to be apprehended. He was
aware of the difficulty of making a present provision sufficiently
ample to give satisfaction; but this only proved the expediency of
making one for the future, and brought him to that which he had so
frequently recommended as the most economical, the most politic, and
the most effectual, that could be devised; this was half pay for life.
Supported by the prospect of a permanent provision, the officers would
be tied to the service, and would submit to many momentary privations,
and to those inconveniences, which the situation of public affairs
rendered unavoidable. If the objection drawn from the principle that
the measure was incompatible with the genius of the government should
be thought insurmountable, he would propose a substitute, less
eligible in his opinion, but which would answer the purpose. It was to
make the present half pay for seven years, whole pay for the same
period. He also recommended that depreciation on the pay received,
should be made up to the officers who should be reduced.

No objection occurred to the measure now recommended, but the expense
it would occasion. In his judgment, whatever would give consistency to
the military establishment, would be ultimately favourable to economy.
It was not easy to be conceived, except by those who had witnessed it,
what an additional waste and increased consumption of every thing, and
consequently what an increase of expense, resulted from laxness of
discipline in an army; and where officers thought they did a favour by
holding their commissions, and the men were continually fluctuating,
to maintain discipline was impossible. Nothing could be more obvious
to him than that a sound military establishment and real economy were
the same. That the purposes of war would be greatly promoted by it was
too clear to admit of argument. He objected a