necessary expenses of the corps. The doing of this bred no little
agitation in the same; and some of the forward and upsetting spirits
of the younger privates, that had been smitten, though not in a
disloyal sense, with the insubordinate spirit of the age, clamoured
about the rights of the original bargain with them, insisting that
the officers had no privilege to sell their independence, and a deal
of trash of that sort, and finally withdrew from the corps, drawing,
to the consternation of the officers, the pay that had been taken in
their names; and which the officers could not refuse, although it
was really wanted for the contingencies of the service, as Major
Pipe himself told me.

When the corps had thus been rid of these turbulent spirits, the men
grew more manageable and rational, assenting by little and little to
all the proposals of the officers, until there was a true military
dominion of discipline gained over them; and a joint contract was
entered into between Major Pipe and me, for a regular supply of all
necessaries, in order to insure a uniform appearance, which, it is
well known, is essential to a right discipline. In the end, when
the eyes of men in civil stations had got accustomed to military
show and parade, it was determined to change the colour of the cloth
from blue to red, the former having at first been preferred, and
worn for some time; in the accomplishment of which change I had (and
why should I disguise the honest fact?) my share of the advantage
which the kingdom at large drew, in that period of anarchy and
confusion, from the laudable establishment of a volunteer force.



CHAPTER XXI--THE PRESSGANG