Note 136 — Chapter III

Cathcart to Newcastle, 17th June 1740. The regiment was the 27th Foot. Cathcart's description of the recruits is pithy: "They may be useful a year hence, but at present they have not strength to handle their arms." The fatuity of the proceedings cannot be appreciated unless it be remembered that the transfer of every man from one regiment to another entailed also a transfer of cash, and an adjustment of regimental accounts (on an extremely complicated system) between regiment and regiment, to say nothing of the primary evils of drafting.