It was an understood thing at first, that, saving in the matter of guns
and other military implements, the volunteers were to be at all their own
expenses; out of which, both tribulation and disappointment ensued; for
when it came to be determined about the uniforms, Major Pipe found that
he could by no possibility wise all the furnishing to me, every one being
disposed to get his regimentals from his own merchant; and there was also
a division anent the colour of the same, many of the doucer sort of the
men being blate of appearing in scarlet and gold-lace, insisting with a
great earnestness, almost to a sedition, on the uniform being blue. So
that the whole advantage of a contract was frustrated, and I began to be
sorry that I had not made a point of being, notwithstanding the alleged
weight and impediment of my corpulence, the major-commandant myself.
However, things, after some time, began to take a turn for the better;
and the art of raising volunteers being better understood in the kingdom,
Mr Pipe went into Edinburgh, and upon some conference with the lord
advocate, got permission to augment his force by another company, and
leave to draw two days' pay a-week for account of the men, and to defray
the necessary expenses of the corps. The doing of this bred no little
agitation in the same; and some of the forward and upsetting spirits of
the younger privates, that had been smitten, though not in a disloyal
sense, with the insubordinate spirit of the age, clamoured about the
rights of the original bargain with them, insisting that the officers had
no privilege to sell their independence, and a deal of trash of that
sort, and finally withdrew from the corps, drawing, to the consternation
of the officers, the pay that had been taken in their names; and which
the officers could not refuse, although it was really wanted for the
contingencies of the service, as Major Pipe himself told me.
When the corps had thus been rid of these turbulent spirits, the men grew
more manageable and rational, assenting by little and little to all the
proposals of the officers, until there was a true military dominion of
discipline gained over them; and a joint contract was entered into
between Major Pipe and me, for a regular supply of all necessaries, in
order to insure a uniform appearance, which, it is well known, is
essential to a right discipline. In the end, when the eyes of men in
civil stations had got accustomed to military show and parade, it was
determined to change the colour of the cloth from blue to red, the former
having at first been preferred, and worn for some time; in the
accomplishment of which change I had (and why should I disguise the
honest fact?) my share of the advantage which the kingdom at large drew,
in that period of anarchy and confusion, from the laudable establishment
of a volunteer force.