218 The Hertford Correspondence. 
resent as an affront the presence of men not amenable to their ter- 
ritorial sway. It is no illiberality to conjecture that the spirited 
opposition to the establishment of James II’s standing army which 
attached so much parliamentary celebrity to the name of John 
Wyndham the member for Salisbury (himself a Militia Colonel) 
was mainly prompted by the same sentiment ; and a further illus- 
tration of the absence of a good understanding between the two 
services is to be found in the unfortunate duel which only a few 
weeks previously had occurred between Sherrington Talbot and an 
artillery officer, arising out of a dispute as to the respective merits 
of their men during the Duke of Monmouth’s rebellion, and which 
proved fatal to the heir of Lacock. But as the object of the above 
remarks has been rather to exhibit the more recent manifestation of 
this feeling, let us refer to a few memoranda belonging to the mid- 
dle and close of the last century. And first, as to the system of 
inducing men to quit the Militia for the regular army. This prac- 
tice, when clandestinely carried on, has of course lost none of its 
illegality, yet it is now one of constant occurrence; the recently 
issued Government circulars to the Militia Captains to facilitate 
such transfers being only an expression of the altered views of 
society on the subject. Seventy years ago it was looked at in a 
very different light. The following advertisement betrays an ani- 
mus of which the like expression would, at the present day be re- 
garded, to say the least, as ungraceful. 
‘“‘ Devizes, 21 Sept., 1787. 
‘« Whereas a Sergeant on the recruiting service has this day been convicted 
before two of His Majesty’s Justices of the Peace for the County of Wilts in 
the penalty of £20 for having enlisted a man enrolled to serve in the Militia of 
the said County : the Colonel and Officers of the said regiment of Militia, in 
consideration of the said Sergeant’s submission, and assurance that he had been 
led into the said offence by an opinion that men enrolled for three years only 
might be enlisted, have remitted the said penalty ; but they hereby caution all 
recruiting Sergeants and others against taking any man enrolled to serve in the 
Militia before his full time of service shall be expired; as they are determined 
to prosecute all persons offending with the utmost rigour of the law.” 
N. HONE, 
Adjutant, Wilts Militia.” 
At a somewhat earlier date, viz. in 1770, great displeasure was 
expressed on one occasion by certain parties in Devizes at the offen- 
