rs sent home through the regular
channels some 600,000 thalers, and at least two or even three times that
amount by mail or other facilities. The idea of a sale of these troops is
absurd and ridiculous.

Just as in other wars where allied troops serve together, so did the
Hessians fight on the side of the English in America, with the advantage
of not serving in unwholesome climates. They served under their own
officers and were subject only to Hessian laws of war. The troops could
not be divided unless in case of necessity; the supremacy of the Hessian
state was never touched. If there were a "sale," then there must have been
a re-sale to their own country. At the beginning of the American war the
Elector recommended to his Parliament the establishment of a war fund of
4,549,925 thalers for future state requirements. His wisdom secured a
thoroughly good government, and at his death a national reserve fund of
12,473,000 thalers, while he had relieved the people of taxes to the
amount of 8,255,000 thalers, practically a saving of 20,000,000 for the
people. All he asked in return was an increase of his civil list of half
of one per cent. He had found the country a waste; he left it a blooming,
prosperous garden; he deserved the praise of Mueller, the historian, and
he earned the love of his people, who in his lifetime made voluntary gifts
for a memorial to testify the gratitude of his country for his services.

At this time Frederick the Second [of Prussia] made another effort to draw
Hesse within the influence of his policy. In 1779 he asked the Elector to
send troops against a threatened Austrian advance from Belgium, then still
under the Hapsburgs, so as to leave Prussia a free hand against its old
enemy, and Prussia promised to pay subsidy for the force thus helping it
against Austria. The Elector was supported by his Parliament in refusing
thus to be tempted to violate his loyalty to the Emperor Joseph, for whom
he had always felt profound respect.

Frederick the Second was stirred to great anger, as he had made the
Elector the honorary colonel of the Prussian regiment stationed at Wesel,
and wrote to Voltaire: "If the Elector were of his way of thinking, he
would not have hired his troops to England, but to Prussia; but the
Elector was a Catholic and therefore loyal to the Emperor." His real anger
was thus confusing England with the Catholic powers. But it was a great
good fortune that, thanks to the wise policy of