A PRECEQENT FOR CONSCRIPTION
SIR,—The Spectator, in its article on National Service, says: "It has been said in recent discussions that we have never had compulsory service in peace-time before. We have not." G. M. Trevelyan, in his English Social History, p: 167, says: "Another sign of the self-respect and self-reliance of the English commonfolk was training for military service. It was only during the long period of peace and safety after Waterloo, that men began to regard it as part of English liberty not to be trained for defence. In all previous ages the opposite and more rational idea had prevailed. In the later Middle Ages the national skill in archery and the obligation to serve in the militia of town and country had fostered the spirit of popular independence which Froissart, Fortescue and other writers had noticed as peculiarly English."—Yours faithfully, C. G. CRAWLEY. 22 Manic:rid Avenue, Harpenden, Herts.
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