proportion of the able-bodied manhood of a country, is now rarely
practised. The obvious unfairness of selection by lot has always had the
result of admitting substitutes procured by those on whom the lot has
fallen; hence the poorer classes are unduly burdened with the defence of
the country, while the rich escape with a money payment. In practice,
conscription invariably produces a professional long-service army in
which each soldier is paid to discharge the obligations of several
successive conscripts. Such an army is therefore a voluntary
long-service army in the main, _plus_ a proportion of the unwilling men
found in every forced levy. The gravest disadvantage is, however, the
fact that the bulk of the nation has not been through the regular army
at all; it is almost impossible to maintain a large and costly standing
army and at the same time to give a full training to auxiliary forces.
The difference between a "national guard" such as that of the siege of
Paris in 1870-71 and a _Landwehr_ produced under the German system, was
very wide. Regarded as a compromise between universal and voluntary
service, conscription still maintains a precarious existence in Europe.
As the cardinal principle of recruiting armies, it is completely
obsolete.