Thus, sir, the landlord and his guest were the constant enemies of each other, and spent their lives in mutual complaints, injuries, and insults.

But by the present regularity of our military establishment, this great evil is taken away; as the soldier requires no credit of the victualler, he is considered as no great incumbrance on his trade; and being treated without indignities, like any other member of the community, he inhabits his quarters without violence, insolence, or rapacity, and endeavours to recommend himself by officiousness and civility.

In the present method of payment, sir, the troops have always one month’s pay advanced, and receive their regular allowance on the stated day; so that every man has it in his power to pay his landlord every night for what he has had in the day; or if he imagines himself able to procure his own provisions at more advantage, he can now go to market with his own money.

It appears, therefore, to me, sir, that the amendment now proposed is the proper mean between the different interests of the innkeeper and soldier; by which neither is made the slave of the other, and by which we shall leave, to both, opportunities of kindness, but take from them the power of oppression.

Mr. CAREW next spoke as follows:—­Sir, the amendment now offered is not, in my opinion, so unreasonable or unequitable as to demand a warm and strenuous opposition, nor so complete as not to be subject to some objections; objections which, however, may be easily removed, and which would, perhaps, have been obviated, had they been foreseen by the gentleman who proposed it.

The allowance, sir, of small liquors proposed, I cannot but think more than sufficient; three quarts a-day are surely more than the demands of nature make necessary, and I know not why the legislature should promote, or confirm in the soldiery, a vice to which they are already too much inclined, the habit of tippling.

The innkeeper, sir, will be heavily burdened by the obligation to supply the soldier with so many of the necessaries of life without payment; and, therefore, it may be justly expected by him, that no superfluities should be enjoyed at his expense.

But there remains another objection, sir, of far more importance, and which must be removed before this clause can be reasonably passed into a law.  It is not declared, or not with sufficient perspicuity, that it is to be left to the choice of the innkeeper, whether he will furnish the soldier with provisions at fourpence a-day, or with the necessaries enumerated in the clause for nothing.  If it is to be left to the choice of the soldier, the victualler receives no relief from the amendment, to whose option, since he must suffer in either case, it ought to be referred, because he only can tell by which method he shall suffer least.