MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Cleveland Row, June 1st, 1798.
MY DEAREST BROTHER,

I did not answer your letter earlier, because I waited to know the
opinion of others on the subject of the proposal which you mention.
I find that there is a very strong apprehension of creating by it
dissatisfaction among the Militia, and of impeding the future
raising and augmentation of that force. For it is reasoned thus:
although in the present moment the public spirit is so high that it
is probable a very large part would readily concur in a similar
proposition, yet there would certainly be many individuals, and
perhaps some bodies among them, who would be reluctant to alter
their original terms of service. These persons would hardly be
placed in a fair situation, because although the option would still
nominally be left to them; yet that would be attended with so much
odium, and would so much carry the appearance of backwardness, that
any persons in such a time as this, and particularly persons
engaged in military service, would naturally be very unwilling to
expose themselves to it. By this means, all security and confidence
in the original terms of enlistment would be lost, and both
officers and men, deliberating about entering into the Militia,
would do it with the idea that they might continually be called
upon to serve out of the kingdom, which would destroy the whole
Militia system.

Besides this, another objection strikes me, which I think perhaps
even stronger than the preceding. It is that of the loss of
security to this country, both in point of fact and opinion, from
rendering that force applicable otherwise than to the immediate
protection of Great Britain. I hope that in all cases we should
have done our best, according to such judgment as we could form at
the time: but I will fairly own to you that I do not myself believe
that England would have been now as secure as I trust it is, if we
had possessed the power of disposing of the Militia regiments for
Channel or Irish service, and much less if that power had also been
extended to the continent in general.

A third argument I think of little weight, but I know from what I
have heard in general conversation on the subject, that it would
make considerable impression among a particular class