Note 443 — Chapter XI

See Humours of a Coffee House (a dialogue), 26th December 1707. Guzzle.—How go on your recruits this winter? Levy (an officer).—Very poorly. I am almost broke; they cost us so much to raise them, and run away so fast afterwards that, without the Government will consider us, we shall be undone, and the service will suffer into the bargain.... Some of us were forced to live on five shillings weekly; the rest was stopped by the Colonel for the charge we had been at in raising recruits; and after all they deserted from us and the service wanted what the nation paid for.... What recruits stayed with us, we were no better, for being most of them boys, they fell sick as soon as we got into the field.... If our regiments were only complete as they ought to be, you would hear something to surprise you in a campaign.

See also Secretary's Common Letter Book, 23rd April 1711, wherein the Generals report that under the present system of mustering, recruiting is impossible, and recommend that if any men die, desert, or are discharged, their names may be kept on the rolls for the next two musters; and see Coxe's Marlborough, vol. vi. pp. 232, 233.