One Prevot, a refugee adventurer, recommended by the Princess of Orange, had ingratiated himself with the Duke, and was countenanced by him in a proposal of raising four Swiss battalions to be blended with new levies in our colonies, and employed in North America: the commander to be English; Prevot, second in command. The officers to have co-equal benefits with the natives _there_, but to acquire _here_ no rank or advantage. In consequence of this plan, February 9th, an estimate of the charge was presented to the House by the Secretary at War, who introduced it with a description of the advantages which the Americans, sensible of their want of discipline, would derive from being led by experienced officers. Pitt, instead of censuring the scheme, dwelt on the tardiness of it, painted the negligence of the Administration since the peace of Aix, from the very date of which they had had reason to suspect the designs of France; lamented Lord Loudun, who was placed at the head of a scroll of paper; compared two miserable battalions of 1000 men sent from hence, with 3000 dispatched thither by the French; and asked, if it was but at that day that the Administration began to defend America? Did they not know that this could not be a force before August?--yet he would take this because no better [was] to be had. The foreign officers would undergo another consideration: he should not be for them. Lord Barrington replied, that 8900 men were already voted for the service of America. Charles Townshend, a perfect master of our West Indian affairs and history, gave a detail of many enterprises that had failed by a mixture of Europeans and Americans; wherever the latter only [were] employed, the swiftness of recruiting had been incredible; when blended, in three years 2000 men had not been levied. As he knew our neglects in that quarter of the world better than Pitt, he was not less gentle in lashing them.