L Benjamin Franklin [+777 
the thirty guineas per man * if I did not stay in 
Europe to receive them? Then, it is necessary also 
that I be ready to send recruits to replace the men 
you lose. For this purpose I must return to Hesse. 
It is true, grown men are becoming scarce there, 
but I will send you boys. Besides, the scarcer the 
t The editor of George II1.’s Letters to Lord North, in a brief com- 
mentary upon these contracts, Vol. I., p. 266, says: 
“The principal graziers with whom the English government dealt 
for military stock were the Duke of Brunswick, the Landgrave of 
Hesse Cassel, the hereditary Prince of Hesse Cassel, and subsequently 
the Prince of Waldeck. The prices given, as appears from the 
copies of the treaties laid before Parliament on the 29th of February 
in the following year, were as follows: These potentates stipulated 
to supply a force of 17,742 men at the rate of 7. 4s. 4d. a man; all 
extraordinary losses in battle or otherwise to be compensated by the 
king. Each of the noble graziers was to receive in addition an 
annual subsidy in proportion to the number of men; the Duke of 
Brunswick 15,510. so long as his troops received pay, and double that 
sum for two years after; the Landgrave of Hesse 108,281l., and also 
to have twelve months’ notice before payment was discontinued, 
after his forces returned to his dominions; to the Princes of Hesse 
and Waldeck, who contributed near 700 men each, were assigned 
6,017]. The dominions of all were guaranteed against foreign attack, 
for such time at least as their herds were in foreign parts.” 
In a letter from George III. to Lord North, dated from Kew, No- 
vember 14, 1775, his Majesty writes: 
“T sent last week orders to the Regency and to Field Marshal Spor- 
ken that Schleither ‘should be permitted to contract with Colonel 
Faucitt for raising 4,000 recruits for Great Britain, and that Stade 
and Neuburgh should be the two garrisons where the recruits should 
be closely kept. . . . The laws of Germany are so clear against 
emigration that I certainly, in going thus far, have done as much as 
I possibly can in my electoral capacity; the giving commissions to 
officers, or any other of the proposals that have been made, I can by 
no means consent to, for they, in plain English, are turning me into a 
kidnapper, which I cannot think a very honorable occupation.” 
The Colonel Faucitt here referred to was sent as agent to trade with 
the hereditary prince Ferdinand, George IIIL’s brother-in-law, who 
persuaded his father, the reigning duke, to part with some of his troops. 
Three hundred light dragoons, which were not wanted, were added to 
“the 4.000 recruits” required, Faucitt not wishing “to appeardifficult.” 
212 a gly