Page:The Hessians and the other German auxiliaries of Great Britain in the revolutionary war.djvu/31

 Rh suggests that the cabinet did not care to meet the criticism which this item in the accounts would have raised.

The treaty with Hesse-Cassel, dated January 15, 1776, differs from that with Brunswick principally as being more favorable to the German court. In the first place, the King of Great Britain was made to engage in a defensive alliance with the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel. The Hessian troops were to be kept together under their own general, unless reasons of war should require them to be separated. Their sick were to remain in the care of their surgeons and other persons appointed for the purpose under the Hessian generals, and everything was to be allowed them which the King allowed to his own troops. Under this treaty the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel was to furnish twelve thousand men, completely equipped, and with artillery if desired. He was to be paid levy-money at the same rate as the Duke of Brunswick, viz., 30 crowns banco, or £7 4s. 4½d. for every man. His subsidy, however, was larger in proportion, amounting to 450,000 crowns banco, or £108,281 5s. per annum, to be continued (but not doubled) for one year after the actual return of the troops to Hesse. The Landgrave subsequently furnished various smaller contingents, making special bargains for them, but his advantage over the duke may be roughly estimated from the fact that, barring the blood-money above spoken of, and concerning which we have no data, barring, also, whatever pickings and stealings the most serene rivals managed to gather in, and counting only levy-money and subsidies, the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel received more than twice as