lishment of new
dependents; we shall enlarge the influence of the court, and increase
the charge of the nation, which is already loaded with too many taxes to
support any unnecessary expense.

By the other method, of adding a hundred men to every company, we shall
not only save the pay of the officers, which is no slight consideration,
but what seems, if the reports raised by the ministry of our present
danger be true, of far more importance, shall form the new forces with
more expedition into regular troops; for, by distributing them among
those who are already instructed in their duty, we shall give them an
opportunity of hourly improvement; every man's comrade will be his
master, and every one will be ambitious of forming himself by the
example of those who have been in the army longer than themselves.

If it be objected, my lords, that the number of officers will not then
bear a just proportion to that of the soldiers, it may be answered, that
the foreign troops of the greatest reputation have no greater number of
officers, as every one must know who is acquainted with the constitution
of the most formidable armies of Europe. Those of the Prussian monarch,
or of the various nations by which we were assisted in the late war,
either as confederates or mercenaries, have but few officers. And I very
well remember, my lords, that whenever they were joined by parties of
our own nation, the inequality in the number of the officers produced
contests and disputes.

The only troops of Europe, my lords, that swarm with officers, are those
of France, but even these have fewer officers, in proportion to their
private men, in time of war; for when they disband any part of their
forces, they do not, like us, reduce their officers to half-pay, but add
them to the regiments not reduced, that the families of their nobility
may not be burdened with needy dependents, and that they may never want
officers for new levies.

There are many reasons, my lords, that make this practice in France more
reasonable than it would be in our kingdom. It is the chief view of
their governours to continue absolute, and therefore their constant
endeavour to keep great numbers in dependence; it ought to be our care
to hinder the increase of the influence of the court, and to obstruct
all measures that may extend the authority of the ministry, and
therefore those measures are to be pursued by which independence and
liberty will be most supported.

It