head the malediction of the civilized world. The Spectator makes "conscription" its Christmas message. It is urged in the name of defence, but it will be used for aggression on the first favourable moment. No doubt we are now part of the Continent of Europe ; but it is not for us to conform to those habits of the European States which have been proved so ineffectual and illusory. Conscription is the policy of despair, of reliance upon brute force, and not on judgment, reason, love of right, devotion to duty, self-sacrifice, and all those moral qualities, on which, by the confessions of the leaders of armies, their victories primarily depend. The Voluntary Service Committee have shown the efficiency of the voluntary principle to meet all the exigencies with which our country is, or may be, threatened, and we know that volunteers will do their work infinitely better than any conscript army possibly could. The nation must not consent to change its sufficient and efficient system at the bidding of a military caste.
Again, it has been urged by Germans that they have something better to give the nations of the earth than they at present possess, or than any other people can offer. If that is so, I am quite ready to say, by all means clear the way for them, and let them pour out their gifts. It is the law of national life; that the best nations judged by the highest ethical, humanitarian, and Christian standards are sure to survive. If we have the will and the power to offer the best, we need not fear for our future; and if Germany has something better, then I doubt not for one moment she will have an opportunity to give it.
Now we know something of Germany. More than ever we did. We know that it has neither a Free Press nor Free Speech. There is no public opinion. The Kaiser is above criticism. Popular government does not exist, and there is no real representation of the people in government, and nothing popular is to be expected in Prussia. Prussia is the open and declared foe of the people. The Yellow Book has a note which was laid before the French Minister of Foreign Affairs last year, speaking of the King of Prussia and the class of which he is the head, as seeing "with terror the democratization of Germany and the growing strength of the Socialist Party." The aristocratic party declined in the Reichstag from 162 in 1878 to 83 in 1898, and 57 in 1912, and of those only 27 were Conservatives, and they held like the Junkers that "only a
