Transactions. 101 



vidtsil, but in the day time the signal was to be given by lighting 

 wet straw or other such material as would yield most smoke. 

 On 24th October, 1804, a return was ordered of the number of 

 carts, carriages, and horses which had either been offered volun- 

 tarily or were procurable on short notice in the event of a large 

 body of troops being ordered to march through the country. 

 Unfortunately this return has not been recorded. The league ' 

 which Pitt made among the Continental Powers against Napoleon 

 greatly increased the difficulties of concentration of the French 

 Army for an invasion of England, and the great victory of Lord 

 Nelson at Trafalgar, in October, 1805, so shattered the power 

 of the French navy that for a time the great fear of an invasion 

 passed away. The Militia after this date were reduced in 

 numbers ; the constant drilling of Voluntoeis was less ardently 

 carried out ; and tlie beacons had no longer to be watched by 

 night and day. 



There is evidence in the minutes of the Dumfriesshire Court of 

 Lieutenancy that the discipline of the Volunteeis of this county 

 was not always what could have been desired. It is probable 

 that the same happened elsewhere, and it is conjectured that this 

 led the Government to pass a measure known as the Local 

 Militia Act, which provided a force subject to more stringent 

 rules. This Act, which was passed in 1808, provided that each 

 county should rai.se a force called Local Militia, six times as 

 numerous as the quota which it had to provide for the regular 

 nulitia. They were liable to be called up for training twenty- 

 eight days in each year, but were not to be permanently embodied 

 or marched beyond their own county unless in case of an invasion 

 when they might be ordered anywhere within the United King- 

 dom. The Volunteers were allowed to transfer their services to 

 the new force, and in that case were each to receive a bounty of 

 £2 2s. Any deticiencies after the transfer of Volunteers were to 

 be filled by a ballot among the men between eighteen and 

 thirty years of age. In this case service was compulsory, and 

 neither by the payment of a penalty nor the providing of a 

 substitute could any one claim exemption. The Dumfriesshire 

 Volunteers appear to have bodily transferred their services to 

 the Local Militia. The Local Militia, like the Volunteers, was 

 formed into three regiments — Dumfries and Annan, with 410 

 men; the Nithsdale, with 610; and tlie Annandale, with GOO 



