FOREIGN AUXILIARIES. In the early periods of English history, F. A. were by no means uncommon. Harold had a body of Danes in his army when he defeated the Norwegian king; and to their refusal to march against the kindred Normans he owed not the least among the complications which ultimately overwhelmed him. Passing to modern times, William III. had for some time a body of Dutch troops in his pay as king of England: throughout the 18 c., Hessian and Hanoverian regiments were con stantly in-the pay of government for temporary purposes. Hessians fougbb for us in the first American war; and the landgrave of Hesse, who sold his troops at ski much a head, received upwards of half a million for soldiers lost in the campaign. During the Irish rebellion, again, in 1798, many Hessian troops were employed.
On the outbreak of the continental war in 1793, it was determined to recruit the British army by the addition of a large body of foreigners; and accordingly, in 1794, an act passed for the embodiment of The " king's German legion," consisting of 15,000 men. These troops, who were increased in the course of the war to nearly double that number, distinguished themselves in various engagements, and formed some of the regiments on which our generals could best rely. of French emigres, as the York rangers and others, were also organized. The whole of the foreign legions were dis banded in 1815, the officers being placed on half-pay.
During the Russian war, in 1854, the British government again had recourse to the enlistment of foreigners; special provision being made in the act authorizing their employment, that the arms of the legionaries were in no case to be used against British subjects, in the event of internal discord. The numbers to be raised were 10,000
Germans, 5,000 Swiss, and 5,000 Italians; the pay to be the same as to British troops, but temporary service to convey no claim to half-pay. About half the number of men were enrolled, and were said to have reached great efficiency, when the stoppage of hostilities arrested their progress, and caused them to be disbanded at a great cost for gratuities, etc.
The Swiss auxiliaries used to form a regular contingent in many of the armies of Europe, especially of France and Italy. Over 1.000,000 served in France from the time of Louis XI. to that of Louis XIV. (14654715). See GARDES SuiSSES. The Swiss usually served only on • condition of being commanded by their own officers, and occa sionally these officers obtained distinction and fame. But the privates returned home poor and often demoralized; and the cantons which supplied most mercenaries suffered severely by their absence. After the French revolution, the cantons ceased publicly to hire omit their subjects; and after 1830 most the cantons forbade foreign enlistment. In 1859,_the confederacy passed a severe law against recruitment for service abroad. There is still, however, a large contingent of Swiss as mercenaries in the Dutch East Indian colonies. The papal Swiss troops have shrunk to a body-guard of about 100 men.