The Scum of Every County, the Refuse of Mankind:Recruiting the British Army in the Eighteenth Century
“There are two ways of recruiting the British army, ” wrote Campbell Dalrymple in his 1761 military manual, “the first and most eligible by volunteers, the last and worst by a press. By the first method, numbers of good men are enrolled, but the army is greatly obliged to levity,accident, and the dexterity of recruiting officers for them; by the second plan, the country gets clear of their banditti, and the ranks are filled up with the scum of every county, the refuse of mankind. They are marched loaded with vice, villainy, and chains, to their destined corps, where,when they arrive, they corrupt all they approach, and are whipt out, or desert in a month.”