reasonably be satisfied, or with which those intrusted with the administration of the army have any great reason to be proud. In other words, there is only one reasonable conclusion to be drawn from these facts-viz., that the popularity of military service is waning more than ever in the eyes of the classes from whom our recruits are drawn. The recruiting reports, which are published annually, furnish interesting records of the progress of recruiting from year to year as far as they go. It must be borne in mind, however, that these reports are official, and that, together with their merits, they have the defects of such documents. Their whole tone is necessarily hopeful and optimistic. The best and most favourable points are made the most of, whilst all unfavourable and awkward facts are ignored or explained away. It is, of course, natural and inevitable that this should be so; and no one who has had experience of the usages and requirements of official life, could expect or suppose that it could be otherwise. The English public has been broken in, by long custom and training, to regard these reports as satisfactory, or at any rate to accept them as the best that can nowadays be reasonably hoped for. Recently, how ever, a marked and significant change of tone has been observable in the official report on recruiting which is published every year. Up to a few years ago it was possible for Inspectors-General of Recruiting to express sanguine though somewhat vague hopes and expectations that, as the conditions and advantages of the service became better known, a greater number of young men of the right sort might be induced to enlist for short service, and so forth, &c., &c. But now that two decades have passed since the first institution of short service, and more than 450,000 short service recruits have been enlisted, it would be too obviously futile to indulge in such hopes as these, inasmuch as it is evident these expectations are not likely to be fulfilled. The conditions of the service, as they are at present, are by this time, it would seem, only too well known, and its advantages are not patent, but very much the reverse, to the classes which it would be desirable to attract. Nay, more than this, in last year's official report on recruiting, a tone of despondency may be detected, as if the officials themselves were beginning to despair of being able to procure a sufficient number of men. Again, in an official circular recently published by the War Office, a pathetic and almost despairing appeal was made to the officers commanding districts to use every effort to secure a larger number of recruits.1 Unfortunately, the classes from which recruits are likely to come will no longer listen to the voice of the Inspector-General, "charm he ever so wisely." After all that has been done and all that has been spent during the last two decades, to be obliged now to issue such an appeal as this is virtually equivalent to a candid confession of utter failure. It may be observed, however, by those who care to look below the surface and to think for them selves, that these recruiting reports are eloquent by their silence on certain important points upon which curiosity may legitimately be 1 The wisdom of issuing such a circular as this appears very doubtful. felt, and upon which accurate information is absolutely necessary, in order to form an accurate view of the real state of affairs. For instance, in an army recruited as ours is by voluntary enlistment, it must surely be of great importance to have accurate and definite information upon the following points-viz. : What is the average number of young men between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five (the limits of age for the recruits) in the United Kingdom and Ireland? Secondly, At what average rate does this number increase every year? (Considering the rate at which our population grows, it is evident that this increase must be very considerable.) Thirdly, What is the annual percentage of such men who offer themselves for enlistment ? even One may search in vain through the annual recruiting reports of the last twenty years or so for any information upon, or reference to, these vitally important points; and, what is more strange, no attempt ever appears to have been made to obtain any definite information or trustworthy statistics upon them. And yet it is plain to any one who understands the subject that if the War Office did possess any statistics, which were even proximately correct, upon these important points, reaching back, let us say, so short a period as two or three decades, they would be of great service in enabling the Inspector-General of Recruiting to gauge, in a far more satisfactory manner than at present he has any opportunity of doing, whether army service is increasing or decreasing in popularity in the eyes of those from whom our recruits are drawn. ap Up to the present the only me thod which successive InspectorsGeneral of Recruiting have been able, owing to the restricted facts and figures at their command, to make use of for gauging the popularity or unpopularity of army service, has been to compare the number of recruits enlisted from year to year. If the number of recruits enlisted shows a steady increase for a few years, recruiting is confidently declared to be growing in popularity. If, on the other hand, the number decreases, the deficiency is explained away, is declared to be merely temporary, or is attributed to various causes, such as the general activity of trade, the brisk demand for labour, &c., &c. But it must be obvious to any one who has considered the question that this is a very fallacious and defective method of gauging the popularity or unpopularity of army service. The state of the labour market-i.e., the general briskness or slackness of trademust of course always, on the whole, have a good deal of influence one way or another in recruiting. But there are also one or two other plain facts to be kept in view with which the state of the labour market has nothing whatever to do. These points are as follows::Owing to the large and increasing growth of our population from 1865-1880, there must be a proportionately large and increasing number of young men every year in the country, between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five, who are eligible, as regards their age, for recruits. If this is true-and it is hard to see how, in the face of the Census Returns, it can be gainsaid—there are two inevitable conclusions to be drawn, which may be stated as follows:: If military service were making any real progress in popular favour, there would necessarily be an increasing percentage of recruits of fering themselves for enlistment every year, and this increased number should, in some degree, be proportionate to the increase of the population from which our recruits are drawn. The second conclusion is thisIf, with a large and annually increasing percentage of men and youths from whom to draw recruits every year, the annual numbers offering themselves for enlistment is stationary, military service is, and must be, waning instead of waxing in popular favour. In other words, a sufficient number of recruits is only maintained by the ever-increasing number of men and youths in the country from whom recruits can be drawn. If the number of recruits obtainable is diminishing, the state of the case is of course far worse, inasmuch as the popularity of military service must be waning to a far greater extent than is generally admitted or supposed. These conclusions are irresistible, and any arguments tending to gainsay them must be taken for what they are worth. The ever-increasing growth of our population, and the advantage which the army at any rate ought to derive from it, has of course a most important bearing upon this whole question of enlistment and recruiting; and it is worth while to look into it a little further, as far as the somewhat scanty statistics which are available for the purpose will allow. The following figures from the Census Returns of 1871 and 1881, which were kindly furnished to me some years ago by the Registrars-General of England, Ireland, and Scotland, will serve to throw some light upon this subject:— Number of males between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five at the Census of 1 In the Census Returns the ages of the population are arranged in quinquennial periods only. It is not, therefore, possible to ascertain the exact number of males between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five, which are the limits of age for recruits. If at the coming census of this year, and at each succeeding census, the War Office could arrange with the Registrar-General's department to have a table compiled of the number of males between the ages of eighteen and twentyfive in Great Britain and Ireland, the figures and statistics hereby obtained would, in the course of a decade or two, be useful and valuable. It is to be feared, however, that such a return, if obtained this year, would tell too much! five. Of this number of 370,000 no very great practical import it is fair to assume that about seven-tenths-i.e., in round numbers, 260,000-were between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five, and therefore eligible for enlist ment. From this rough calculation alone, it will be seen how largely the mere growth of our population should, if only military service maintained its average level of popularity, contribute to increase the number of men and youths who annually offer themselves for military service. If, for instance, only one per cent of this increased number of men and youths existent in the United Kingdom had been drawn last year into the net of the InspectorGeneral of Recruiting, it would mean by this time a permanent increase of 2500 recruits, and this increased number would be growing larger and larger year by year. But this increase would have arisen not from any increased popularity of the service (would that it were so!), but merely from the natural increase of our population. In reply to all this, it will doubtless be answered that the British army has during the last ten years managed, with more or less success, to get through a large amount of hard work in various parts of the world, such as in Afghanistan, Egypt, the Soudan, the Cape, South Africa, &c., &c. and that though the supply of recruits is doubtless not so good as it might be, either in quality or quantity, it has sufficed to enable the army to carry out the current work which has fallen to its lot to do; and that so long as this is the case, all other considerations as to how these results have been obtained are of ance. In short, quocunque modo, rem. It must, however, be evident to any one who has at all considered the question, that this is a very superficial view of this matter. It is certain that if there was a steadily increasing flow of recruits year by year offering themselves for enlistment, the War Office would have a far wider range of choice, and could afford to be far more particular, than at present, both as to physique and also as to the character and antecedents of the men it would consent to enlist. Any one acquainted with our recruiting, and who knows the views and opinions of the working classes regarding army service, will recognise at once that the advantages which would accrue to the general reputation of the army as a career, from an increased range of choice from which recruits could be drawn, would be very great. At present, unfortunately, the army is regarded by the more respectable working classes as a profession to be shunned. If, however, the army was made more difficult to enter, and if some little evidence and knowledge of a man's antecedents and character were required before he was accepted, a very great step towards raising the social status would have been gained. With regard to age and physique, it will here be necessary to make some remarks. That the general average physique of our soldiers is deteriorating, there is, unfortunately, ample evidence in the official figures to be found in the General Annual Return of the British Army to prove. As a matter of fact, it appears that the rank and file cannot be kept up to the level of even recent years. The return for 1889 tells a worse tale than ever, inasmuch as the average height of men of the regular army is lower than it has ever been before. The actual figures, as quoted in the return, are as follows: There are no less than 23,255 men in the army under 5 feet 5 inches in height, and another 34,351 (making in all a total of 57,606) under 5 feet 6 inches in height. In other words, 235 out of every 1000 are now under this measurement, whereas, ten years ago, the proportion per 1000 under 5 feet 6 inches was but 190 men. Again, with regard to chest measurement: ten years ago the proportion per 1000 men under 37 inches was 562, and over 37 inches 438. Now, however, it is 657 per 1000 under 37 inches, and 343 per 1000 over that measurement. In the matter of age, likewise, the figures are equally discouraging. Ten years ago the proportion per 1000 men under twenty-five years was 507, and 493 over that age. Now, however, it is 649 under twentyfive years and 351 over that age. Even if these figures did not reveal so alarming a state of things, it could in any case hardly be maintained, even by the most enthusiastic optimist, that recruits who only measure 33-34 inches round the chest, whose height is 5 feet 3 inches, and whose weight need not be more than 125 lb., are fair average specimens of young Englishmen between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five. A larger and a wider choice would enable the War Office to increase the standard of height, chest measurement, and weight. As matters stand at present, if any attempt were made to do this, the immediate effect would inevitably at once, as experience has often shown, be a marked diminution in the number of recruits. There is another point, and that an unfavourable one, to be noticed. Amongst the mass of daily and weekly newspapers, published in London and the provinces, there are a certain number whose rôle and raison d'être is to represent the interests of the working classes, and which have a wide circulation among them. As the War Office is one of the principal bidders in the market for unskilled labour, if military service were fairly popular, it is only natural to suppose that the advantages and disadvantages of the service would sometimes be discussed in such papers as these, which never fail to discuss any opening or opportunities for labour which may happen to present themselves. As a matter of fact, however, the topic of army service is hardly ever touched upon in these papers, and certainly enlistment is never advocated as being a desirable trade. There are, indeed, strange contrasts and anomalies in the composition of the British army. Not the least striking of these is the eagerness among the upper classes to obtain a commission in her Majesty's service, compared with the marked reluctance of the working classes to embrace a military career. Another curious anomaly is, that the British army has everything which goes to the making of a splendid army except the one thing, without which all other things are as naught - viz., an adequate supply of men. For small campaigns in various parts of the world our voluntary system of enlistment, and our plan at present in vogue of skimming the cream of the army in order to carry them to a successful issue, has doubtless sufficed, and will continue to do so; but a European campaign of six months' duration |