CURRENT LITERATURE.
THE SWISS MILITIA SYSTEM.
The Journal of the Royal United Service Institution. (Royal United Service Institution, Whitehall. 2s.)—Those of our readers who are interested in the question of universal training should not fail to read the admirable lecture on the Swiss Militia system given by Major Johnson, of the 1st Volunteer Battalion of the Hampshire Regiment, before the Royal United Service Institution last January, and now printed in the May number of the Journal. They will see from his account of the Swiss system of compulsory service how absurd it is to say that it is impossible to apply compulsion in the matter of national defence without incurring the hideous evils of militarism. The Swiss people are at once the freest, the most democratic, and the least military of peoples, and yet they have devised for themselves a system which not only makes their country secure from invasion, but also secures admirable educational results. We do not doubt that this system could be applied to our country without the slightest danger of our encountering the evils of conscription or military service of the Continental type. At the same time, we should greatly gain as a nation, morally and physically, from the discipline and sense of national cohesion produced by universal training. Incident- ally, also, we should increase our power of resistance in case of our Empire or these islands being in serious danger of foreign attack.
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