candles, vinegar, and salt, and three quarts of beer a-day gratis (allowing him also fire and cooking utensils), and then the soldier was otherwise to maintain himself as he pleased. Secretary at Commous. 2 49. The Secretary at War,' in stating the case on behalf of Statement of the Government, did not disguise his apprehensions. Now the question had been started, the soldiers would in a short time meet with the same refusal in every quarter of the three kingdoms; "that no innholder will furnish the soldiers quartered on them with diet or small beer, or with firing, salt, or any kitchen utensils for dressing the provisions they buy for themselves, which, in my opinion, will make it impossible for the soldiers to subsist, especially when they are upon a march from one part of the kingdom to another; and the necessary consequence of this will, I think, be a mutiny in the Army, which I dread much more than any danger that can arise from obliging innkeepers and others to furnish the soldiers quartered upon them with diet and small beer, at such reasonable rates as the Justices shall appoint, not exceeding a groat a-day." 50. The debate is the most important that occurs for many Importance years on the Standing Army, and Mr. Pulteney's view of the debate. found expression in these words: "It must be admitted, Sir, that a Standing Army in quarters will always be more troublesome to the people than a Standing Army in barracks; but for this very reason I shall always be for keeping our Army in quarters, that the people may be sensible of the fetters which are preparing for them before such a number can be forged as may be sufficient for shackling them close down to the ground. The people have still a power to prevent, or put an end to the keeping up of too numerous an army; and I hope they will always think of exercising this power before it be too late. That they may do so, I am for keeping our Army in their view, by having the soldiers quartered among them. If the soldiers were all kept in barracks the people would be insensible of their numbers, and might not perhaps think of reducing them by law till the Army grew so numerous, and became so closely united as to be able to support itself against law." See also Mr. Pelham's Speech, pp. 1418-9. 3 lb., p. 1448. 2 Parl. Hist., pp. 1405, 1406. CHAP. XI. Billeting in America, 1765-1770. 235 Notwithstanding this opposition, the amendments were accepted, and the Standing Army was continued with- Amendments out further opposition on this ground till the year carried. 1792. America differences mother 51. The Quartering of troops in America between the years 1765 and 1770 gave rise to greater troubles between Billeting in the Colonists and the Mother country than any that with the had arisen at Home. Barracks had been provided by country. the colonists sufficient for the accommodation of the troops under ordinary circumstances; but as the Stamp Act had aroused a spirit of opposition to the Mother country, a large body of troops was sent to America to hold the Colonists in subjection. In this state of feeling, Parliament assumed to legislate for the quartering of troops there, and to impose upon the inhabitants a charge, small and insignificant in amount, for the supply of certain necessaries, such as "salt, vinegar, cyder, and beer to the troops." British Parsists on quar liament in ters being 52. We have seen that in the earlier case of the Leeward Islands the Home Government did not interfere, save by representation to the Colonial Government; but in the case of America the British Parliament took the power provided. into their own hands, and by the 5 Geo. III., c. 33, obliged the Civil authorities in America, upon the order of the Commanderin-Chief, to provide for the troops (1) in the barracks provided by the colonies, (2) in the inns, &c., and (3) uninhabited houses, which the Governor and Council were to authorise the Civil authorities to take and fit up for the reception of troops. Necessaries vided. 53. The men were to be provided with certain necessaries, as "fire, candles, vinegar, and salt, bedding, utensils for dressing their victuals, and small beer, or cyder, or to be prorum," gratis. Those in the inns, &c., by the innkeeper, and those in barracks or uninhabited houses by persons appointed by the Governor and Council, or in their default-by the Civil authorities, who were to be reimbursed by the Respective Provinces. 54. The House of Representatives of New York,' in direct 1 Massey's England,' p. 315. presentatives disobedience to the Imperial statute, refused to make provision House of Re- for supplying these "necessaries," and an Act of in New York Assembly was passed for furnishing the Barracks pliance. in the city of New York and Albany, omitting (advisedly) "salt, vinegar, cyder, and beer," from the Act. refuse com 55. The 5 Geo. III., c. 33, was an annual Act, and its reenactment in the two succeeding years was followed 33, renewed by similar acts of disobedience from the New York 5 Geo. III., c. Functions of the New York As sembly suspended. Assembly. In this position of antagonism the Imperial legislature sought to support its authority by restraining and prohibiting the House of Assembly1 from all legislative acts until this provision had been made for the King's troops; and in order to enforce it in the province of New York, the 7 Geo. III., c. 59, enacted," that, "until made by the Assembly, it should not be lawful for the Governor, or for the Council for the time being, of New York, to pass or give his or their assent to, or concurrence in, the making or passing of any Act of Assembly; or his or their assent to any order, resolution, or vote in concurrence with the House of Representatives for the time being within the said colony, plantation, or province; or for the said House of Representatives to pass or make any bill, order, resolution, or vote (orders, resolutions, or votes for adjourning such house only excepted) of any kind, for any other purpose whatsoever; and that all acts of assembly, orders, resolutions, and votes whatsoever, should be null and void, and of no force or effect whatsoever." 3 compromise Act of Renewal. 56. Subsequently two clauses-offered by an indepenClauses of dent member (Mr. Pownall), in a spirit of conciliainserted in tion and compromise were accepted by the British Parliament. The first declared that the 5 Geo. III., c. 33, should not be put in operation in any province during such time as any law confirmed by his Majesty should be in force therein for providing quarters for His Majesty's troops,* and the other enabled the civil authorities and the Commanding Officer, by mutual agreement, to provide quarters in any manner most convenient to the troops and to the country. With these 16 Geo. III., c. 18; 7 Geo. III., c. 55. 2 Vol. ii. p. 874 g. 49 Geo. III., c. 18. CHAP. XI. Resistance of Innholders to Billets. 237 clauses the Act was from time to time renewed till the Americans declared their Independence, when the last Act (16 Geo. III., c. 11) expired. of 1739-40 tory to pub Public-houses avoid billets. 57. The arrangement of 1739-40 was not accepted by the innholders as fair or satisfactory, and, from the tone of the Amendments Secretary at War's speech, it is obvious that he acted not satisfacrather from a sense of "dread" of the Army than of licans. justice to his fellow-citizens. Their manner of meeting this oppression was the same that was resorted to in James II.'s reign,-the public houses were closed, and the troops refused admittance. In 1759 a petition1 was presented to the Com- closed to mons from Winchester, complaining of the hardships sustained by the petitioners from billets: that not less than twenty-six public houses had been given up, only four inns and thirty-two small public houses remained open in the city and neighbourhood, and that these must be closed unless some relief was given. The same feeling had so strongly increased in Sussex, and other places near to the coast, that it had become a practice with the publicans, as a class, to take down their sign-boards and throw up their licenses upon the approach of troops ordered to be quartered on them. A.D. 1793. Public ser vice im 58. These proceedings were obviously injurious to the Military Service of the Crown, and the Law Officers were consulted in 17932 as to the measures that should be taken to put a stop to them. The disease appeared peded. to them too chronic to be cured by punishment, and indeed they doubted whether a prosecution would be successful. The most advisable course therefore was to apply to Parliament for proper regulations on the subject, and they ventured to suggest it. Remedy in ment of a the establish 59. The remedy was not, however, sought for in the Constitutional manner, by an immediate application to Parliament for proper regulations for billets; but out of the Extraordinaries of the Army a new Military Department was established for the erection of barracks throughout 126 Com. Journ., p. 600. Barrack De partment. 2 Appendix LXVI. (8). England. In the year 1795 an Act was passed for a limited time (the increase of expense has become permanent') to give a larger allowance to the innkeepers, and the Appendix2 contains a table showing the gradual increase of this allowance from 1795 to May, 1858. A further sum of twopence halfpenny per man for bed, &c., was given by War Office Circular of April, 1859,3 on the recommendation of a Select Committee of the House of Commons in 1858, "that the soldier should not be an unwelcome guest to the publican." Foreign be billeted. 4 60. Little more need be said on the subject of billets, as the detailed provisions of the law will be found in the troops cannot Mutiny Act. If foreign troops should ever be in either of the three kingdoms, the Crown would not be entitled to billet them under the Mutiny Act. In 1756 this difficulty arose, when the special sanction of Parliament was obtained by the 30 Geo. II., c. 2, to render such billeting legal, and in the year 1782 a similar Act (22 Geo. III., c. 26) was passed.5 As to quar tering Guards minster, and in West minster. 61. With regard to the clause relating to the quartering of the Guards in Westminster, two doubts have at out of West- different times been raised. The first, whether the other troops Guards, under the other clauses of the Act, can be quartered out of Westminster, or of parts adjacent,— which the Court decided in the affirmative; and the other, whether Westminster and the parts adjacent are exempt from the billets of other troops,-upon which the Secretary at War, in 1805, was advised that such exemption did not exist, and that other troops than the Guards might be billeted there under the general provisions of the Act." 1 The 1st Act 35 Geo. III., c. 64, was limited to the 25th May, 1796, and annnally renewed by the Government (a boon not wholly without its influence in election times), till 1829, when its provisions were incorporated in the Mutiny Act. (Compare 10 Geo. IV., c. 6, with 11 Geo. IV., c. 7. Appendix LXVIII. 3 145 H. D (3), p. 999. 2 4 H. D. 1858, June 25, p. 363. 5 See also 18 Vict., c. 2, sect. 2, as to foreign troops enlisted during the Crimean War. 6 King v. Calvert, 7 Ter. Rep., p. 726. 7 Bk. 1, p. 322. |