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The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria cover

The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria

Chapter 593: ADDITIONAL FORCE ACT
By Edward Farr
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About This Book

The volume traces British political, parliamentary, and military developments from the accession of George III through the early nineteenth century, chronicling changes of ministry and cabinet, debates over colonial taxation and the American conflict, parliamentary controversies involving figures such as Wilkes and Warren Hastings, questions of Catholic relief and slave-trade abolition, and responses to the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, including major naval and continental campaigns, the union with Ireland, and domestic legislation on finance, civil liberties, and parliamentary reform.

ADDITIONAL FORCE ACT

On the 5th of June Pitt introduced a bill for raising and supporting a military force, and for a general reduction of the additional militia, and which was denominated, “The additional force act.” The essential part of his plan was to increase the permanent strength of the regular army, to which end he proposed limiting the militia to its usual amount of 40,000 for England, and 8000 for Scotland, and removing the difficulties which now stood in the way of recruiting for the regular army, by destroying the competition existing between those who recruited for the regular service, and those who recruited for limited service only. He likewise proposed that the army of reserve should be raised for five years, and that while it was not to be called out for foreign service, it should serve both as an auxiliary force to the regular army, and as a stock from which that army might be recruited. According to his plan, it was to be joined to the regular army in the way of second battalions; and he considered that from so close a connexion, a considerable number of the reserve might be induced to volunteer for the regular army, Pitt’s bill was opposed by Windham, Fox, Addington, and others, but it was carried through the commons with small majorities, and in the lords, by one hundred and fifty against sixty-nine.