custom, gave them an extra allowance as
compensation, after deducting the expense of their equipment and clothing.
Kapp asks for reference to any official report of the action of the
Hessian Parliament in favor of making an alliance with England giving the
Hessian troops, and urging the Elector to make the treaty under which this
was done. The answer is that the Duke of Brunswick set the example, and
the Hessian Parliament urged the Elector to secure the payment of the
outstanding balance due for the Hessian forces serving in the Seven Years'
War, and to do this by a new alliance with England, providing for a
Hessian contingent. It was Schlieffen, the Prime Minister, who in the
Hessian Parliament urged the English treaty as a means of refilling the
state treasury, so exhausted that it was at the end of its resources. The
Elector hesitated, but yielded to the urgent wish of all his ministers and
the Parliament. Abundant evidence is found in the records of the Hessian
army and the Parliament. Kapp asks what authority there is for the
statement that, at the outbreak of the American war, England owed Hesse
10,143,286 thalers arrears for subsidies due for Hessian troops serving in
the Seven Years' War, and paid 2,220,003 thalers. Kapp says the English
authorities, especially the exhaustive parliamentary debates, show that
Hesse claimed only L41,820 (278,000 thalers) for hospital moneys, which
was disputed and denied by England, until in its need of soldiers it
agreed to pay it, although saying that it was a dishonest claim and had
long before been fully satisfied. The answer to this is that there were
long and intricate negotiations on this subject. The war, before the
accession of Elector Frederick, had left the country burdened with a debt
of 2,559,000 thalers, which the Parliament tried to meet by a tax of
fourteen and a half per cent., but the Elector reduced it so as to relieve
his poor people. In 1772 England paid 900,000 thalers as compensation, to
be divided between the Elector and the country, but the former yielded any
claim to it and added 600,000 thalers out of the moneys paid him as
subsidy, so that the treasury was enabled to pay off 1,500,000 of the
debt. Later there was paid a further sum of 2,220,000 thalers, and still
later 672,000 thalers for the people and places on furnishing official
proof of special losses. This led to a special mission to England and a
long discussion with the money-saving English treasu