+240 ‘political progre/s of Britain. Fune 20. 
* a halbert was held pointed at his breast, and ano- 
“« ther at his back, so that he could go but at a cer= 
“ tain pace. In a few minutes -his back, his 
‘* breast, and even his face, were in a gore of 
‘¢ blood. So much for the buttons ofa great coat ! 
‘‘ His infernal majesty has not served half his 
‘¢ apprenticefhip, unlefs he has been.a planter in the 
‘¢ West Indies, the captain of a slave fhip, or the colo- 
**. nel of a Hefsian regiment. 
_. When these troops were first landed from Eu- 
*¢ rope, the appearance of many of them announced 
‘¢ an utmost consummation of wretchednefs ; the sick 
*¢ and the dead were treated with equal indifference ; 
‘¢ the scurvy had made dreadful havock, and I have 
“seen them, like as many dogs, buried by cart- 
‘¢ loads. 
_“ Every circumstance in their behaviour was 
‘¢\ marked with grofsnefs and. barbarity. In some 
‘“‘ regiments, the major might at pleasure cudgel his’ 
‘¢ captains, the captain his lieutenant, and the latter 
‘“‘ his ensign. Numbers of Americans, whose sensi- 
«¢ bility would not have allowed them to fight with 
‘‘ Englifhmen, were forward to exterminate these 
‘«¢ devoted foreigners.”’ 
Inthe American war, we maintained an army of 
between twenty-five and thirty thousand German 
mercenaries, including those in Gibraltar and Minor- 
ca. The expence was nominally about seven hundred 
thousand pounds per annum, but amounted in fact to 
much more; for me extraordinaries of the army, as 
they were called, for 1731 alone, amounted to THREE 
MILLIONS AND A HALF STERLING. Theoriginal object 
j 
