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for the vigorous prosecution of the war, its effects will not immediately terminate with the war; for every volunteer for foreign service, swears to serve in the Militia for the term of five years, unless sooner discharged." This oath is taken on volunteering for foreign service, in addition to the ordinary military oath.*

The Queen is empowered to accept the voluntary offers of any Militia, (not exceeding in any case three-fourths of the actual establishment of the corps) to serve out of the United Kingdom; and also has power to allow bounties (fixed by the Secretary-at-War) to all under rank of Commissioned Officer, who make such voluntary offers.†

The Queen, through the Commanding Officer of any corps, may propose foreign service; but the officer is first bound to explain to each person that the offer is voluntary. ‡

The Queen may also accept the services of three Field Officers for 900 men, two for 600, and one for 300; and of a sufficient number of non-commisioned officers and drummers, according to the establishment of the corps. If a sufficient number of Field Officers do not volunteer, she may give the rank of Field Officer to any Captain volunteering.§

The Militia volunteering, are formed in provisional regiments, for the purposes of foreign service; and all officers who hold a higher rank in the provisional battalion or regiment than they hold in the Militia, are deemed to be Militia Officers of higher rank for the purposes of foreign service, and to be capable of commanding the provisional battalion ; but no such officer can rank higher than Lieutenant-Colonel. In the event of sufficient officers not volunteering, the

Queen may appoint officers, without regard to legal qualifications, but no person to a higher position than that of subaltern, who is not an officer in the army or militia. She may also supply vacancies in these appointments, so that she does not affect the appointment of officers as by law established, in case of vacancy.*

18 Vict. c. 1, secs. 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9.

SECTION II.

Volunteer Corps.

History. In a former Section a tolerably detailed account has been given of the method of raising the ancient feudal forces. In this assembly of the feudal tenants, the great barons, bishops, abbots, and other tenants holding in capite from the King, were warned to assemble both by a special and general summons. In the first place a royal mandate was addressed to the great tenants, but sent to the sheriffs of each county, to be personally served on those important personages. They were enjoined on their fidelity, as they regarded the King's honour, and the lands they held of him, to assemble with their due service of men and horses, at the time and place appointed. The inferior tenants or vassals were summoned by proclamation; but in cases of popular insurrection, rebellion, or apprehension of foreign invasion, where it was deemed necessary to collect a greater force than the feudal troops, the King issued his writ to the sheriff of those counties, whose forces it was thought expedient to array and embody, directing them to ride day and night through their districts, causing it to be proclaimed wherever they came, that all persons between the age of sixteen and sixty, not labouring under bodily disability, called defensible men, were commanded to join the King's army with all

possible speed, at a place appointed, competently armed according to their possessions, under pain of forfeiture of life and limb, and every other thing they could forfeit.*

Gradually out of this system arose a plan of voluntary enrolment. Stipendiary troops were thus raised by commissions, authorising persons to enlist volunteers; or by indenture: a practice which began about the end of the reign of Edward III, and became general in the reign of Henry V. By these indentures Englishmen and also foreigners contracted to provide a certain number of able men, properly armed, to serve the King for a stated period, and for a stipulated bounty and pay, then styled wages and regards; the indentures also contained covenants respecting prisoners of war, booty, and ransom: the latter forming no small portion of the enrolments. It was under such a system that the father of the gallant Earl of Essex re-established the English supremacy in Ireland. Although fighting for the Queen, Her Majesty only lent the money for the expedition, and afterwards nearly ruined the worthy nobleman with compound interest. There is a very curious correspondence on the subject in the British Museum.

These corps terminated their service, by right, on the return of peace. The first important corps of this nature was the Argyle county regiment, levied in 1759, to serve specially in that county only. Other regiments were raised in the same manner by voluntary enrolment, in 1778 and 1779, at an epoch when the war with the American Colonies assumed an aspect altogether unfavourable to Great Britain, and caused her to fear an invasion of her domestic dominions from France.

In the war with the French Republic, twelve regiments Fencibles. *Grose's Military Antiquities, vol. i. p. 66.

of Fencibles were levied, whose services might be extended to the three kingdoms, and even beyond them. They were of great utility in the rebellion in Ireland, which preceded the Union. In the same contest, twenty-four regiments of cavalry and seventeen of infantry, enrolled voluntarily for defensive service only, offered to bear arms in any part of the British Empire.

The Colonels of Fencibles were the proprietors of their regiments, which they levied and organized in many instances at their own expense. They selected the officers under the approbation of the Crown. The Fencible officers ranked with those of the Militia, according to the dates of their commissions.

Sea-Fencibles. During the war with the French Empire, companies of Volunteers were formed, specially destined to the guard and service of the batteries on the coast. These companies, which received the name of Sea-Fencibles, were levied in the maritime counties. From the places of their habitation, they were at hand on the spots where their services might be immediately required, on the attempt of an enemy to land.

Pardoned
Criminals.

Since the last war, regiments of Fencibles have no longer been levied in Great Britain. Fencible regiments were raised in the North American colonies during the late war, but approaching nearly in character to regular troops. They were enlisted to serve in any part of North America, and their officers ranked with those of the regular service. They were quite distinct from the embodied and sedentary militia of the Canadas.

An expedient sometimes practised by our Kings was to pardon criminals, in order to procure troops for foreign service, on condition of their serving in the King's army abroad,