

^M 



mm 



7S 



RECRUITING. 



of all shades being alone admitted. The great 

 repugnance which is generally felt towards the 

 service is occasioned by the smallness of the pay, 

 and by the want of proper clothing, whilst the 

 almost incessant duty precludes any hope of 

 working at a trade, or of pursuing any employ- 

 ment that is not connected with the 'life of a 

 soldier. Several elderly persons told me, that 

 in former times the service was arranged in a 

 manner totally different ; that then no difficult} 

 was found in obtaining the number of men re- 

 quired, but rather, that interest was made for 

 the situation of a soldier of the line. Each of 

 the forts upon the coast was garrisoned from the 

 inhabitants of the neighbourhood to a certain 

 number ; these enlisted as soldiers of the line, 

 were embodied, and performed the duty of the 

 forts, receiving the usual pay ; but ithey were 

 not liable to removal to any other ]post ; and 

 from their numbers the duty was easy, by which 

 means they were enabled to have around them 

 their wives and families, and to follow any trade 

 to which they might have been brought up. 

 Thus these men had something for which to 

 fight, if the service required that they should 

 act against any enemy of the state ; they had 

 homes to defend, they had comforts of which 

 they might be deprived, they had ties which 

 produced local attachments ; but the regiments 

 of the present day are filled up with vagabonds 



