yet the Elector, following the English custom, gave them an extra allowance as compensation, after deducting the expense of their equipment and clothing. Kapp asks for reference to any official report of the action of the Hessian Parliament in favor of making an alliance with England giving the Hessian troops, and urging the Elector to make the treaty under which this was done. The answer is that the Duke of Brunswick set the example, and the Hessian Parliament urged the Elector to secure the payment of the outstanding balance due for the Hessian forces serving in the Seven Years’ War, and to do this by a new alliance with England, providing for a Hessian contingent. It was Schlieffen, the Prime Minister, who in the Hessian Parliament urged the English treaty as a means of refilling the state treasury, so exhausted that it was at the end of its resources. The Elector hesitated, but yielded to the urgent wish of all his ministers and the Parliament. Abundant evidence is found in the records of the Hessian army and the Parliament. Kapp asks what authority there is for the statement that, at the outbreak of the American war, England owed Hesse 10,143,286 thalers arrears for subsidies due for Hessian troops serving in the Seven Years’ War, and paid 2,220,003 thalers. Kapp says the English authorities, especially the exhaustive parliamentary debates, show that Hesse claimed only £41,820 (278,000 thalers) for hospital moneys, which was disputed and denied by England, until in its need of soldiers it agreed to pay it, although saying that it was a dishonest claim and had long before been fully satisfied. The answer to this is that there were long and intricate negotiations on this subject. The war, before the accession of Elector Frederick, had left the country burdened with a debt of 2,559,000 thalers, which the Parliament tried to meet by a tax of fourteen and a half per cent., but the Elector reduced it so as to relieve his poor people. In 1772 England paid 900,000 thalers as compensation, to be divided between the Elector and the country, but the former yielded any claim to it and added 600,000 thalers out of the moneys paid him as subsidy, so that the treasury was enabled to pay off 1,500,000 of the debt. Later there was paid a further sum of 2,220,000 thalers, and still later 672,000 thalers for the people and places on furnishing official proof of special losses. This led to a special mission to England and a long discussion with the money-saving English treasury over the claims for compensation which ran up to millions. The greater part was absolutely rejected, much reduced to a six per cent. basis, and Schlieffen at last forced to accept £41,820 for the actual outlay of 300,000 thalers for hospital expenses. No doubt the foundation of the large savings of the Hessian state treasury and of the Elector was the money obtained as subsidy for the American war. The Elector raised his country from poverty by using this money for the improvement of his capital and its great neighboring palace, for royal roads, for parks and open places, for churches, museums, lyceums, and seminaries, theatres, city halls, hospitals, art galleries, and schools, medical colleges, infants’ and orphans’ homes, libraries, and the two universities, Marburg and Rinteln, for opera and chapel. The source of all this expenditure was of course the English subsidies. The charge that the Elector had laid aside 56,000,000 as his private fortune is clearly disproved by the fact that in 1831 the whole estate of the Elector amounted to only 14,000,000 to 16,000,000, although Kapp says the Elector Frederick left 60,000,000, mostly subsidy money, but partly profit on lotteries, yet the official records show that during the fourteen years of the lottery the whole profit was only 93,000 thalers. The accounts show that in 1775 the treasury had to its credit in all 4,549,925 thalers, much in doubtful claims growing out of the earlier wars, and, in 1785, at the death of Elector Frederick, it had 12,473,000 thalers. In other words, after the Seven Years’ War this little country of 300,000 people earned an average of 1,000,000 thalers a year by subsidies, and by the American war it was enabled to save 18,000,000, out of which much was spent in public improvements. England was very slow to admit its liability for the losses inflicted on Hesse as its ally in the Seven Years’ War, but it soon learned to value and pay generously for its help in supplying a fine body of troops for its American war.

At the outbreak of the American war England owed Hesse 10,143,286 thalers in arrears for its services since 1764, of which 2,559,000 was due in 1760, making the total Hessian debt on the former date 7,425,965 thalers. England paid 900,000 thalers first, and later on 2,220,000 thalers, and Hesse still claimed £41,820 for hospital expenses; but there was still due to Hesse 3,128,000 thalers for its increased debt, and 300,000 for losses by fire and the sword, and 150,000 for local expenditures, and 914,772 for the expenses of the Hessian army.

Mr. Kapp says it is claimed that the Elector paid his troops the full English pay, but his authorities show that they got only three-fourths of it, although he had promised Suffolk not to reduce it to one-half in the American war, as he had done in the Seven Years’ War. He certainly broke faith by a reduction of even a quarter. That the Hessian soldiers did receive the full English pay is attested by the treaties with England and by the moral honesty of the Hessian Elector. The fact was attested at the time by daily experience, and cannot be contradicted by a perjured soldier, for the rate of pay was better for the Hessian than for the English soldiers, and they knew it too well to be put off with anything less than the full amount. The regular pay was increased by regular additions for winter clothing, food, lodgings, baggage, forage, and other such expenses, while both English and Hessian soldiers were supplied free of cost with wood, etc., and divided fairly all booty. The proportionate charges for arms, etc., were higher in the English than in the Hessian army, but as compensation each man of the yäger regiment was given extra pay of £1 a month.

The English troops in Gibraltar began their pay with £1 9s. for the sergeants, the Hessian troops with £1 14s. The general officers alike received £59, while the Hessian company commander’s pay was increased from £13 to £19 by special allowances. The second lieutenant in the English service got £5 2s., the Hessian one shilling more, and in addition there were extra monthly allowances—for lieutenants 8 thalers, for captains 32 thalers, for generals 180 thalers. The higher officers retained their Hessian rank with its pay. The Hessian commander-in-chief drew his English monthly pay of £121 and the Hessian pay of £182. Captain Ewald, of the famous yägers, is on record as notifying his company commanders that their pay was a guinea a day in addition to their share of booty. For provisions got in the country where the troops were serving there was no charge. The yägers received each twenty English shillings’ worth a month and his side arms; the line soldier, twelve and a half shillings. There never was an army so well paid as the Hessians in the English service in America. A married subaltern could support his family at home and live well. Ewald says the company commanders did this and saved money besides. Even the enlisted men saved sums reported at 170 and 300 and 525 and even 700 thalers. The pay department showed that thirty staff officers and six captains saved 106,350 thalers. The highest savings’ report shows that four colonels had 24,000 thalers, two others had 26,800 thalers, and the two last Hessian commanders had, between 1781 and 1784, 11,000 and 15,000 thalers to their credit. General von