both days inclusive, being one hundred and fifteen days, be referred to the said Committee.

Ordered, That the estimate of the charge of five Hanoverian Battalions of Foot, at Gibraltar and Minorca, from the 25th of December, 1775, to 24th of December, 1776, both days inclusive, being three hundred and sixty-six days, be referred to the said Committee.

Ordered, That the estimate of the charge of the Office of Ordnance, for the year 1776, land service, be referred to the said Committee.

Then the House resolved itself into the said Committee.

Lord Barrington stated the Army estimates for 1776. He said that the whole of the force intended to be raised and maintained was fifty-five thousand men, the ordinary expense of which would be one million three hundred thousand pounds, and a fraction; that the expense of last year was something above one million pounds, consequently that the increase would be three hundred thousand pounds. He then enumerated the different services, and showed that, except the force intended to serve in America and Great Britain, the troops stationed elsewhere would be nearly the same. In the latter there were at present seven battalions, and ten returning from Minorca, Gibraltar, and America, which would make seventeen in the whole, four of which would return with officers only; of these four the Eighteenth and Fifty-Ninth Regiments, which had suffered most, would be two. He next informed the Committee that Gibraltar and Minorca would be garrisoned by five battalions of Hanoverians, consisting of four hundred and seventy-five men each, and four of English; the two serving at Gibraltar to consist of four bundled and seventy-seven men each, the usual establishment; and the two at Minorca of six hundred and seventy-seven men each; so that by this increase of men, which was effected chiefly by the invalids which were sent from hence, another battalion could be spared from Minorca. He observed, that in the West-Indies there would be one battalion less; for instead of five, there would be but four battalions, which was meant to be composed of his Majesty’s Royal American Regiment, to be commanded by General Prevost. The force to be employed for guards, garrisons, and invalids, within Great Britain, would be twenty thousand men, and those in America, including the force in the West-Indies, Gibraltar, Minorca, and the coast of Africa, thirty-four thousand, and that the actual force in America alone would be thirty-four battalions, at eight hundred and eleven men to a battalion, including two regiments of light-horse, one sent some time since from Ireland, and Burgoyne’s, intended for that service, which would, in the whole, amount to upwards of twenty-five thousand men. This was the army intended to carry on the operations in America, part of which was borrowed from Ireland, and must accordingly be paid by Great Britain. This was the general outline of his arrangements on paper; but he was sorry to say it was but on paper, for none of the corps but those in Gibraltar and Minorca were completed to their full complement, particularly those in, or going to America, besides the four regiments returning from that country to Great Britain; which were to return with officers only. That this was a matter, in the present situation of things, much to be lamented; yet nothing was left untried in order to remedy it, hitherto to very little purpose, for the recruiting service proceeded but slowly; that attempts were made to inlist Irish Catholicks, which is what he would not have advised, had it not been for the extreme necessity, though he did not look upon the measure to be contrary to law. Foreigners were tried as single men, to be incorporated in British regiments, neither did that answer; the bounty was raised and the standard lowered, still the men could not be obtained. Such being the true state of the case, he would take the liberty to obviate a popular objection that would probably be made to the present plan of hostile operations against America upon this very ground, that recruits could not be had, because the service they were to be employed in was odious to the people in general. But his Lordship insisted that was not the true cause, for it might be traced, and found in several concurrent causes. Nor could there be a stronger instance on which to found his reasonings than that at the time of the armaments by sea and land, relative to Falkland’s Island: the same difficulty of obtaining recruits was felt, and no person would say that a war designed to be carried on against France and Spain is not a popular war. Those causes were in the first place to be attributed to the great influx of real or nominal wealth of late years; to the consequent and natural luxury of the times; to the increased employment this furnished to the lower orders of the people; to the very flourishing state of our manufactures and commerce; but, above all, to the true and natural cause—a want of men. This want of men he imputed to the following reason: at the breaking out of the late war our military force everywhere did not exceed (including those in the East-Indies) above forty thousand men; whereas our last peace establishment consisted of thirty-one thousand paid by Great Britain, fifteen thousand by Ireland, ten thousand in the East-Indies, four thousand marines, (which in former times were never a permanent corps,) and twenty-seven thousand militia, which last description of men were as much cut off from the recruiting service as if they had been actually inlisted: summing up, then, those respective numbers, they formed the monstrous amount of eighty-nine thousand, or about an increase of forty-nine thousand, most of whom, on an emergency like the present, could have been called into actual service. He said, he understood that the idea of taxing America was entirely given up. That being the case, the next consideration, nay, indeed the only one, was how to secure the constitutional dependency of that country. This, in his opinion, was not to be effected without Great Britain declaring a resolution to maintain her constitutional rights, and putting herself in a situation to enforce them, should America continue to resist, or refuse obedience to her just rights. This, though he did not pretend to speak from authority, was the general plan adopted by Administration: first to arm, and then send out Commissioners; and he said that he had heard that a very great military officer, high in the esteem of his Sovereign and the nation, and who was perfectly well acquainted with America, was the person intended to be sent out as first Commissioner. In the course of the detail, his Lordship observed, that of the last five regiments which left Ireland, two of them had been driven by stress of weather into Milford-Haven; but as soon as the transports were refitted, they would proceed with those troops to the place of their destination. The noble Lord concluded by moving his Resolutions:

Resolved, That it is the opinion of this Committee, that a number of Land Forces, including three thousand two hundred and thirteen invalids, amounting to twenty thousand seven hundred and fifty-two effective Men, Commission and Non-Commission Officers included, be employed for the year one thousand seven hundred and seventy-six.

Resolved, That it is the opinion of this Committee, that a sum not exceeding six hundred and fifty-nine thousand two hundred Pounds two Shillings and ten Pence and seven-eighth, parts of a Penny, be granted to his Majesty for defraying the charge of twenty thousand seven hundred and fifty-two effective Men, for Guards, Garrisons, and other his Majesty’s Land Forces in Great Britain, Jersey, and Guernsey, for the year one thousand seven hundred and seventy-six.

Resolved, That it is the opinion of this Committee, that a sum not exceeding seven hundred and twenty-three thousand four hundred and thirty-two Pounds eleven Shillings and seven Pence three Farthings, be granted to his Majesty for maintaining his Majesty’s Forces and Garrisons in the Plantations in Africa, including those in Garrison at Minorca and Gibraltar, and for Provisions for the Forces in North-America, Nova-Scotia, Newfoundland, Gibraltar, and the ceded Islands in Africa, for the year one thousand seven hundred and seventy-six.

Resolved, That it is the opinion of this Committee, that a sum not exceeding forty-two thousand five hundred and thirty Pounds nineteen Shillings and four Pence, be granted to his Majesty for defraying the charge of the difference of pay between the British and Irish Establishment of one Regiment of Light Dragoons, and six Regiments of Foot, serving in North-America, for the year one thousand seven hundred and seventy-six.

Resolved, That it is the opinion of this Committee, that a sum not exceeding eleven thousand five hundred and five Pounds seven Shillings and three Pence, be granted to his Majesty for the pay of the General and General Staff Officers in Great Britain, for the year one thousand seven hundred and seventy-six.