The Army Regulator: or the military adventures of Mr John Railton; giving an account of his particular services in the Horse Grenadiers, the Dragoons, the Foot, and the train of artillery.

Shewing:
1. The frauds practised by the officers, from the general to the corporal, to render the poor private centinell miserable.
2. The art of inlisting men: or the secret history of a remarkable officer of dragoons in the year 1735.
3. Practices after inlisting, whereby the horses are deprived of their corn, the men of their money, and the KIng of his soldiers, by false musters....
10. Articles of war, and other valuable papers relating to the regulation of the army. With the artifices made use of to prevent the publication of this book.

London: W Warner, 1738. xxiv and 149 pages. A good copy in contemporary sprinkled calf, the title label is missing, the front hinge is cracked but sound, there are two small wormholes.

Railton enlisted into the Second Troop of Horse Guards in 1734. He was discharged at his own request and immediated re-enlisted into the dragoons. At first objecting to stoppages of pay, he later extended his ambit to false musters and other abuses, and persistently petitioned the Secretary at War. He was imprisoned for his pains and on his release enlisted in the Royal Artillery under a false name. Or so at least he says. Alan Guy in 'Oeconomy and Discipline' (page 114 note 82) notes 'One of the two Bodleian Library copies of this work, Bod.8vo Rawl.579, is particularly interesting, as it is heavily annotated by its one-time owner, obviously an officer or someone with extensive understanding of regimental affairs. The margins are peppered with splenetic comments, such as 'impudence', 'scandalous liball', 'malicious and groundless and a compilation of ignorance and impudence' or, frequently, long (and in this author's opinion, convincing) expositions of the bias and half-truths in Railton's account....