DEMOCRACY AND A CITIZEN ARMY.t IT was significant that one
of the first acts of the first Revolutionary Assembly after the deposition of Louis Capet was the inauguration
• Under One Roof. By Mary Cholmondeky. London : John Murray. [45. W.] t The Case for Compulsory Military Service. By G. G. Coulton. London : Mac- ruffian and Co. [7s. 6d. nett
of a sweeping system of compulsory military service. " Conscrip- tion " and " Compulsion " are words that at first eight seem to have a tyrannous association. But Mr. Coulton seeks to prove in his extremely able book that historically and logically we must regard the idea of a nation in arms SS the natural product of a virile
democracy. He holds that the decree of the National Assembly was no freakish impulse, but the natural and necessary resolve of a newly freed people. He sees in the bearing of arms a fundamental privilege of the free citizen. The identification of military power in the bulk of the population is the final bulwark against the tyranny of a minority. A wise democracy will never place that degree of power in the hands of its rulers which is given by the command of a professional army in an unarmed community. If the Roman Republic had not abandoned the principle of universal service, Rome would never have known the tyranny of Caesar and the legions. The Bourbons, when restored, dared not trust the mass of their subjects with arms, but revoked the decree of the Assembly. Is not the first act of a foreign conqueror the disarmament of the subject race ? The greater part of Mr. Coulton's space is devoted to an exceedingly interesting sestond of the military histories of France, Great Britain, Rome, Germany, and America, in which these special points are admirably formulated and liberally illus- trated by a quantity of extracts from contemporary documents. The rest of the book is chiefly concerned with the demolition of Sir Ian Hamilton and Mr. Trevelyaii, an amusing comparison between the defenders of the voluntary principle in educational and military affairs, and a detailed account of the working of the Swiss Army. For it is of course the Swiss principle of "Com- pulsory Territorials" that Mr. Coulton advocates, not the long- service Army of France or Germany. The whole case is most admirably stated, and, in our estimation, the conclusions over- whelmingly proved : this though—not unnaturally in writing at the present time—he has emphasized military and political necessity so much as to be forced to treat social and physical desirability somewhat cursorily. It is difficult for the converted to calculate the force of impact with which a given exposition of a case will strike an open mind. But we cannot imagine that an unbiassed reader could fail to be convinced by Mr. Coulton's masterly array of instance and of argument.
We are naturally much interested by Mr. Coulton's reference to the Spectator Experimental Company, and to the plea put forward by the editor of the Spectator that under the Common Law of England, and the statutes affecting the office of Sheriff, we already impose the duty of military service on all males over fifteen. We have, however, hitherto omitted to give those on whom this tremendous obligation rests any training in peace time for carrying it out.
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