The clause inserted in the mutiny bill last year, subjecting all officers and soldiers raised in America, by authority of the respective governors or governments there, to the same rules and articles of war, and the same penalties and punishments, as the British forces were liable to; the act passed at the same time for regulating the marine forces, while on shore, and that for the more speedy and effectual manning of his majesty’s navy, were not only confirmed now, but it was further enacted, with respect to this last, as well as for the more speedy and effectual recruiting of his majesty’s land-forces, that the commissioners appointed by the present act should be empowered to raise and levy, within then-respective jurisdictions, such able-bodied men as did not follow any lawful calling or employment; or had not some other lawful and sufficient support; and might order, wherever and whenever they pleased, a general search to be made for such persons, in order to their being brought before them to be examined; nay, that the parish or town officers might, without any such order, search for and secure such persons, in order to convey them before the said commissioners to be examined; that if any three commissioners should find any person, so brought before them, to be within the above description, and if the recruiting officer attending should judge him to be a man fit for his majesty’s service, they should cause him to be delivered to such officer, who might secure him in any place of safety provided by the justices of peace for that purpose, or even in any public prison; and that every such man was from that time to be deemed a listed soldier, and not to be taken out of his majesty’s service by any process, other than for some criminal matter. Nothing could more plainly show either the zeal of the parliament for a vigorous prosecution of the war, or their confidence in the justice and moderation of our ministry, than their agreeing to this act, which was to continue in force till the end of the next session; and which, in the hands of a wicked and enterprising administration, might have been made such an use of, as would have been inconsistent with that security which is provided by our happy constitution for the liberty of the subject.
ACT FOR RAISING A REGIMENT OF FOOT IN NORTH AMERICA.
The next object of the immediate attention of parliament in this session, was the raising of a new regiment of foot in North America; for which purpose the sum of eighty-one thousand one hundred and seventy-eight pounds, sixteen shillings, to which the estimate thereof amounted, was voted. This regiment, which was to consist of four battalions of a thousand men each, was intended to be raised chiefly out of the Germans and Swiss, who, for many years past, had annually transported themselves in great numbers to the British plantations in America, where waste lands had been assigned them upon the frontiers of the provinces; but, very injudiciously, no care had been taken to intermix them with the English inhabitants of the place. To this circumstance it is owing, that they have continued to correspond and converse only with one another; so that very few of them, even of those who have been born there, have yet learned to speak or understand the English tongue. However, as they were all zealous protestants, and in general strong hardy men, and accustomed to the climate, it was judged that a regiment of good and faithful soldiers might be raised out of them, particularly proper to oppose the French; but to this end it was necessary to appoint some officers, especially subalterns, who understood military discipline, and could speak the German language; and as a sufficient number of such could not be found among the English officers, it was necessary to bring over and grant commissions to several German and Swiss officers and engineers; but this step, by the act of settlement, could not be taken without the authority of parliament; an act was now passed for enabling his majesty to grant commissions to a certain number of foreign protestants, who had served abroad as officers or engineers, to act and rank as officers or engineers in America only. An act was likewise passed in this session, strictly forbidding, under pain of death, any of his majesty’s subjects to serve as officers under the French king, or to enlist as soldiers in his service, without his majesty’s previous license; and also for obliging such of his majesty’s subjects as should, in time to come, accept of commissions in the Scotch brigade in the Dutch service, to take the oaths of allegiance and abjuration, on pain of forfeiting five hundred pounds.
MARITIME LAWS OF ENGLAND EXTENDED TO AMERICA.
As it had been resolved, in the beginning of the preceding summer, to build vessels of force upon the lake Ontario, an act was now passed for extending the maritime laws of England, relating to the government of his majesty’s ships and forces by sea, to such officers, seamen, and others, as should serve on board his majesty’s ships or vessels employed upon the lakes, great waters, or rivers in North America; and also, but not without opposition to this last, for the better recruiting of his majesty’s forces upon the continent of America; to which end, by a new clause now added to a former act, a recruiting officer was empowered to enlist and detain an indented servant, even though his master should reclaim him, upon paying to the master such a sum as two justices of peace within the precinct should adjudge to be a reasonable equivalent for the original purchase money, and the remaining time such servant might have to serve.
QUIET OF IRELAND RESTORED.
The intestine broils of Ireland were happily composed this year, by the prudent management of the marquis of Hartington, lord lieutenant of that kingdom. By his steady and disinterested conduct, his candour and humanity, the Irish were not only brought to a much better temper, even among themselves, than they were before their late outrageous riots and dangerous dissensions happened; but also prevailed upon to acquiesce in the measures of England, without this last being obliged to give up any one point of her superiority. The leading men in the parliament of Ireland were the first that conformed; and though the ferment continued very high for some time after, among the middling and lower ranks of people, it was at length entirely allayed by the wisdom of the lord lieutenant, and the excellent law which he encouraged and passed for the benefit of that nation.* The primate of Ireland, who had been very busy in fomenting many of the late disturbances, was, by his majesty’s command, struck off the list of privy-counsellors; and the greatest part of those patriots, whom faction had turned out of their employments there, were reinstated with honour.