The Waverley novels, by Sir Walter Scott, complete in 12 vol., printed from the latest English ed., embracing the author's last corrections, prefaces & notes.

500 WAVERLEY NOVELS.
was at that time general, whether for the colonies, or even for the King's
troops; and as the agents employed in such transactions must be of course
entirely unscrupulous, there was not only much villany committed in the
direct prosecution of the trade, but it gave rise incidentally to remarkable
cases of robbery, and even murder. Such atrocities were of course concealed from the authorities for whom the levies were made, and the necessity of obtaining soldiers made men, whose conduct was otherwise unexceptionable, cold in looking closely into the mode in which their recruiting
service was conducted.
The principal depot of the troops which were by these means assembled,
was in the Isle of Wight, where the season proving unhealthy, and the men
themselves being many of them of a bad habit of body, a fever of a malignant character broke out amongst them, and speedily crowded with
patients the military hospital, of which Mr. Seelencooper, himself an old
and experienced crimp and kidnapper, had obtained the superintendence.
Irregularities began to take place also among the soldiers who remained
healthy, and the necessity of subjecting them to some discipline before they
sailed was so evident, that several officers of the Company's naval service
expressed their belief that otherwise there would be dangerous mutinies on
the passage.
To remedy the first of these evils, the Court of Directors sent down to the
island several of their medical servants, amongst whom was Hartley, whose
qualifications had been amply certified by a medical board, before which
he had passed an examination, besides his possessing a diploma from the
University of Edinburgh as M. D.
To enforce the discipline of their soldiers, the Court committed full power
to one of their own body, General Witherington. The General was an
officer who had distinguished himself highly in their service. He had returned from India five or six years before, with a large fortune, which he
had rendered much greater by an advantageous marriage with a rich heiress.
The General and his lady went little into society, but seemed to live entirely
for their infant family, those in number being three, two boys and a girl.
Although he had retired from the service, he willingly undertook the temporary charge committed to him, and taking a house at a considerable
distance from the town of Ryde, he proceeded to enrol the troops into separate bodies, appoint officers of capacity to each, and by regular training
and discipline, gradually to bring them into something resembling good
order. He heard their complaints of ill usage in the articles of provisions
and appointments, and did them upon all occasions the strictest justice,
save that he was never known to restore one recruit to his freedom from the
service, however unfairly or even illegally his attestation might have been
obtained.
"' It is none of my business," said General Witherington, " how you became soldiers,-soldiers I found you, and soldiers I will leave you. But I
will take especial care, that as soldiers you shall have every thing, to a
penny or a pin's head, that you are justly entitled to." lie went to work
without fear or favour, reported many abuses to the Board of Directors,
had several officers, commissaries, &c. removed from the service, and made
his name as great a terror to the peculators at home, as it had been to the
enemies of Britain in Hindostan.
Captain Seelencooper, and his associates in the hospital department,
heard and trembled, fearing that their turn should come next; but the
General, who elsewhere examined all with his own eyes, showed a reluctance to visit the hospital in person. Public report industriously imputed
this to fear of infection. Such was certainly the motive; though it was not
fear for his own safety that influenced General Witherington, but he dreaded
lest he should carry the infection home to the nursery, on which he doated.
The alarm of his lady was yet more unreasonably sensitive: she would