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Rh British Bluejackets and Marines are drawn principally from a seafaring stock, and are enlisted, on a voluntary system, for twelve years, at the end of which they are eligible for re-engagement for a second term of ten years, completion of which entitles them to a pension. Two-thirds of Germany's sailors are conscripts enrolled for three years, the greater proportion of whom have never seen the sea, and are looked upon rather as "soldiers on board ship than seamen."

Germany's short-service system accounts for the large number of her reservists. If England adopted the same system, her Reserve would be immense; but she has no need to increase it, since her