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vided, 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 Volunteers was less ardently 
carried out; and the 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 Volunteers 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 raise a force called Local Militia, six times as 
numerous as the quota which it had to provide for the regular 
militia. 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 deficiencies 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—Duinfries and Annan, with 410 
men ; the Nithsdale, with 610; and the Annandale, with 600 
