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Enlistment Act 1794

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Enlistment Act 1794
Act of Parliament
Long titleAn act to enable subjects of France to enlist as soldiers in regiments to serve on the continent of Europe, and in certain other places; and to enable his Majesty to grant commissions to subjects of France, to serve and receive pay as officers in such regiments, or as engineers under certain conditions
Citation34 Geo. 3 c. 43
Introduced byWilliam Pitt the Younger
Territorial extent Great Britain
Dates
Royal assent9 May 1794
Status: Repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted

The Enlistment Act 1794 (also known as the Emigrant Corps Bill or Act) allowed the British government to create regiments of émigrés from France. This specific legislation was needed to enlist men who were not British subjects in the British Army and to allow George III to commissions foreigners as officers. The Act was a major break from the military conventions about enlisting soldiers from other states in the Eighteenth Century.[1] The Act expired with the Peace of Amiens.

Background and Need for the Act

As the French officers of these units were Catholic, they needed exemptions from British laws against Catholics. Also, throughout the Eighteenth Century, many British MPs has been hostile to employing foreign troops within the British Army.[2]

Notes

  1. ^ Linch, Kevin (2012). "The Politics of Foreign Recruitment in Britain during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars". In Arielli, Nir; Collins, Bruce (eds.). Transnational Soldiers: Foreign Military Enlistment in the Modern Era. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 59–60. doi:10.1057/9781137296634_4. ISBN 9780230319684.
  2. ^ Clode, Charles Mathew (1869). The military forces of the crown: their administration and government. Vol. 2. London: J. Murray. pp. 432–436.