strength of the Militia, the net result being that 9,000 more recruits
were required annually for the regular forces. These therefore suffered
from the competition of the second and third lines of defence; and in
this competition (then unusually severe) has always lain the crux of the
British military problem.

Pitt sought to solve the problem by reducing the Militia (now 74,000
strong) to the old standard of 52,000 men, transferring the surplus to
the Army of Reserve. He also suggested various inducements to men in the
latter force to enter the line regiments. Further, he proposed to lessen
the penalties levied on defaulters. While maintaining the principle of
compulsory service, at least for a considerable part of the population,
he lessened the inducements which told in favour of the Army of Reserve
and against the Line. Further, in place of the irritating plan of
recruiting by the compulsion of the ballot, Pitt made the parish
authorities responsible for the supply of their quota. If, even so, the
parishes could not find the men, the commander of the district was
empowered to raise them by the ordinary means of recruiting. He further
proposed to associate in each district the battalions of the Army of
Reserve with those of the Line, in the well-grounded hope of increasing
_esprit de corps_ and stimulating the flow of men into the first line of
defence.

The chief critic of these proposals was Sheridan who, on 18th June
brilliantly declaimed against the formation of a great Regular Army, as
alien to the spirit of our people, and by all the arts of rhetorical
necromancy sought to raise the spectre of a Standing Army. When others
bemoaned the threatened increase of taxation and Windham and Craufurd
("Craufurd of the Light Division") criticized the measure severely, the
Opposition cherished the hope of defeating the Ministry. The debate
dragged on till 4 a.m. when 265 members supported Pitt against 223 Noes.
The Bill became law on 29th June. Undoubtedly it failed to answer his
hopes. Recruits did not come in, probably because most parishes were
thenceforth content to pay the smaller fines now imposed. Grenville even
ventured to assert that the Regular Army was smaller at the beginning of
1805 than a year earlier. Certainly the numbers were deficient; and Pitt
accordingly on 31st March 1805 brought in a Bill to attract men from the
Supplementary Militia into the Regular Army by a bounty of ten guineas
per man. This brou