64 BELPER REGIMENT. 



of through contractors. The coat was ornamented with forty 

 buttons. This sura did not include the accoutrements, nor the 

 gaiters, nor the hat and feathers, the hat cost 7s. 6d. The 

 finances of the Belper corps, under the guidance of Messrs. 

 Strutt, seem to have been admirably managed, but the sudden 

 military fervour of the nation made the beginning of the century 

 a harvest time for contractors. The letter book of this corps 

 and the various communications addressed to Colonel Strutt, 

 give some insight into the jobbery that was prevalent as we read 

 between the lines. Occasionally this jobbing comes out with 

 the coolest effrontery. It will scarcely be credited that Colonel 

 Charles Miller, who was Inspecting Field Officer for Derbyshire, 

 etc., at the beginning of the movement, being moved to a 

 district nearer London, writes with his own hand to Colonel 

 Strutt, under date December 21st, 1804, to say that he has 

 entered into connections with the house of Mr. Ross, 28, Castle 

 Street, Leicester Square, army clothier, and that any order for 

 clothing or great coats, given through him " will be executed 

 expeditiously and in the best manner possible." Colonel Miller 

 was evidently sending out like letters to the corps he was then 

 infspecting, as well as to those lately under his control and 

 dependent on his reports for their grants. But when we know 

 what was the conduct about this period of the Commander-in- 

 Chief, His Royal Highness the Duke of York, it is not, perhaps, 

 to be wondered at tliat jobbery should be rife among his 

 subordinates. 



A circular, dated Whitehall, April i6th, 1804, asking for a 

 return as to the strength of each corps and the arms, etc., supplied 

 to it by the government, elicited the following response as to the 

 Belper volunteer infantry at that date : — Companies 4, Sergeants 

 12, Corporals 12, Drummers 8, Privates 228, total 268. The 

 arms received from the Derby magazine, through the clerk of the 

 hundred, were: — 12 Sergeants' spears, 240 muskets, 240 sets of 

 accoutrements, 4 drum carriages, and 10 drummers' swords and 

 belts. Ammunition was supplied from the stores at the Tower. 

 On April 21st, 1804, the Office of Ordnance despatched by 



