during the french and indian wars, town militia formed a recruiting pool for the provincial forces. the legislature of the colony would authorize a certain force level for the season's campaign and set recruitment quotas for each local militia. in theory, militia members could be drafted by lot if there were inadequate forces for the provincial regulars; however, the draft was rarely resorted to because provincial regulars were highly paid (more highly paid than their regular british army counterparts) and rarely engaged in combat.