more
confident in the justice of their cause; unforeseen accidents may
operate, orders may be mistaken, or leaders may be misinformed; but all
these considerations are to be set aside in speculation, because they
may equally be alleged on either part.

Two bodies of men, sir, equally numerous, being, therefore, supposed
equal, it is to be inquired how either may be superiour to the other. It
is proposed, on one part, to produce this effect by doubling the number
of officers rather than increasing that of the soldiers; on the other,
to double the soldiers under the same officers, the expense being the
same of both methods.

When two armies, modelled according to these different schemes, enter
the field, what event can be expected? Either five thousand men, with a
double number of officers, must be equal to ten thousand, differently
regulated, or the publick has paid more for assistance of the officers
than its real value, and has chosen, of two methods equally expensive,
that which is least efficacious.

This, sir, is the state of the question now before us; our present
deficiency is not of men but money, and we may procure ten thousand men
regulated like the foreign troops, at the same expense as five thousand
in the form proposed; but I am afraid that no man will be found to
assert, that the addition of officers will be equivalent to a double
number of soldiers.

Thus it is evident, sir, evident to demonstration, that the most
expensive method is, at the same time, the least advantageous, and that
the proposal of new regiments is intended to augment the strength of the
ministry rather than of the army.

If we suppose, sir, what is more than any foreigner will grant, that the
additional officers raise a body of five thousand men to an equality
with six thousand, is not the pay of four thousand men apparently thrown
away? And do not the officers receive a reward which their service
cannot deserve? Would it not be far more rational to raise seven
thousand, by which our army would be stronger by a seventh part, and as
the pay of three thousand would be saved, the publick would be richer by
almost a third.

Surely, sir, numerical arguments cannot but deserve some consideration,
even from those who have learned by long practice to explain away mere
probability at pleasure, to select the circumstances of complicated
questions, and only to show those which may be produced in favour of
their own opinions.

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