Sir John BARNARD spoke next, to the following effect:—­Sir, whether the interpretation of the act which is now contended for, has been universally admitted, it is impossible to know; but it is at least certain, that the practice which is founded upon it, has in many places never been followed, nor, indeed, can it be made general without great impropriety.

Many of those, sir, who are styled keepers of publick-houses, and on whom soldiers are quartered under that denomination, have no conveniency of furnishing provisions, because they never sell them; such are many of the keepers of livery stables, among whom it is the common method to pay soldiers a small weekly allowance, instead of lodging them in their houses, a lodging being all which they conceive themselves obliged to provide, and all that the soldiers have hitherto required; nor can we make any alteration in this method without introducing the license and insolence of soldiers into private houses; into houses hitherto unacquainted with any degree of riot, incivility, or uproar.

The reason for which publick-houses are assigned for the quarters of soldiers, is partly the greater conveniency of accommodating them in families that subsist, by the entertainment of strangers, and partly the nature of their profession, which, by exposing them to frequent encounters with the rude and the debauched, enables them either to bear or repress the insolence of a soldier.

But with regard, sir, to the persons whom I have mentioned, neither of these reasons have any place; they have not, from their daily employment, any opportunities of furnishing soldiery with beds or victuals, nor, by their manner of life, are adapted to support intrusion or struggle with perverseness.  Nor can I discover why any man should force soldiers into their houses, who would not willingly admit them into his own.

Mr. COCKS spoke to this effect:—­Sir, the practice mentioned by the honourable gentleman, I know to be generally followed by all those that keep alehouses in the suburbs of this metropolis, who pay the soldiers billeted on them a composition for their lodging, nor ever see them but when they come to receive it; so far are they from imagining that they can claim their whole subsistence at any stated price.

It is apparent, therefore, that by admitting this motion, we should not confirm a law already received, but establish a new regulation unknown to the people; that we should lay a tax upon the nation, and send our soldiers to collect it.

General WADE rose, and spoke to this purpose:—­Sir, I have been long conversant with military affairs; and, therefore, may perhaps be able to give a more exact account, from my own knowledge, of the antiquity and extent of this practice, than other gentlemen have had, from their way of life; an opportunity of obtaining.

It was, sir, in the reign of king William, the constant method by which the army was supported, as may be easily imagined by those who reflect, that it was common for the soldiers to remain for eight or ten months unpaid, and that they had, therefore, no possibility of providing for themselves the necessaries of life.  Their pay never was received in those times by themselves, but issued in exchequer bills for large sums, which the innkeepers procured to be exchanged and divided among themselves, in proportion to their debts.