here are to be found, among the
youth of Britain, persons very well qualified for the senate; and I have
never heard that a post in the army required greater abilities.

The pleasure, however, with which I have attended to his remarks, has
not so far prejudiced me in favour of his opinion, as that I shall
easily consent to change that method of discipline, to which our troops
have been accustomed, and of which we know by experience, that it is, at
least, not less efficacious than that of any other nation. Customs, if
they are not bad, are not to be changed, because it is an argument in
favour of a practice that the people have experienced it, and approved
it, and every change is disagreeable to those who judge only by
prejudice, of whom I need not say how great is the number.

Many arguments may, sir, in my opinion, be added to our experience in
favour of the present establishment. The number of officers--but I find
myself unable to pursue my design, because I can no longer read my
notes, which, being written by another hand, somewhat embarrass me in
this decline of the light. I shall, therefore, only make some
observations upon the speech of the gentleman who spoke the second in
this debate, and hope that I shall be allowed to deviate from the
principal question, since I do it only in pursuit of another.

He has observed, that our troopers are mounted upon horses that are of
no use; a remark, sir, which I never heard from any other person, and
for which, I believe, no authority can be produced: they are mounted,
indeed, upon horses very different from those which are used by other
nations, because scarcely any other country breeds horses of equal size
and strength, and, therefore, I am informed that the French have
purchased horses from this island, and believe that all the cavalry of
Europe would be mounted upon our horses if they could procure them. I
have been informed, that their pressure in the shock of battle is such,
as no forces in the world are able to sustain; and that it was not less
by the strength of our horses than the spirit of our soldiers, that the
squadrons of France were, in the battle of Blenheim, pushed into the
Danube.

Nor do I less disapprove his censure of the choice which has been made
of the troops intended for the American service, which, though I
ardently desire its success, I cannot think of equal importance with the
defence of our own country; for though we may be disgraced by a defeat