[To Mg EDITOR Or THE "Srscr,roa."l SIR,—Surely the cry of
"compulsion," as an argument against universal military service, is an argument most unsound and unphilosophical. Does Mr. Auberon Herbert (Spectator, September 22nd) admit its force as an argument against vaccination, or against paying the King's taxes ? When a democracy like Switzerland wills to be " compelled " to defend its hearths and homes, is the "compulsion" "an interference with personal liberty " ? Does it cancel the clever little Republic's claim to be a free nation ? Does it not rather connote a greater force of will, a stronger capacity of using the jewel of freedom, than Britain shows in merely talking of it,—" storing" it, forsooth, in a bank that utters much base coin of claptrap and insular conceit ? As a reader of the Spectator for forty years, I rejoice at your partial escape from Mr. Auberon Herbert's fallacies !—I am, Sir, &c.,
E. M. OAKELEY.
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