“It has _so happened!_ and for years too! astonishing! It has _so happened_ that an Act of Parliament has been most notoriously and shamefully disobeyed for years, to the extreme misery of thousands of deluded wretches (our countrymen), and to the great detriment of the nation at large; it has _so happened_ that not one of the offenders has been brought to justice for this disobedience, even now it is fully discovered; and it has _so happened_ that the hand of power has made another dive into the national purse, in order--not to add to what the soldier ought to have received; not to satisfy _his_ hunger and thirst; but to gratify the whim or the avarice of his capricious and plundering superiors.” [After a good deal more, to the same effect, the writer reverts to the new demand upon the national purse by the Secretary at War:--] “This is certainly the most curious mode of rectifying abuses that ever was heard of; and it points out in the clearest light the close connexion that exists between the _ruling Faction_ in this country and the military officers; and this connexion ever must exist while we suffer ourselves to be governed by a _Faction_. If any other body of men had thus impudently set the laws of the land at defiance,--if _a gang of robbers_, ornamented with red coats and cockades, had plundered their fellow-citizens, what would have been the consequence? They would have been brought to justice, hanging or transportation would have been their fate; but, it seems, the Army is become a _Sanctuary_ from the power of the law. Nor shall we be at all surprised at this, if we consider that a standing army is the great instrument of oppression, and that a very numerous one may in a little time be necessary. I am not, therefore, blaming the ministry for this proceeding. I really think they have acted with a great deal of prudence in procuring the 23,000_l._ for their supporters; but (as it was all amongst friends) I think the business might have been opened in a more unequivocal manner; as thus, in the language of truth:--