Page:Facts about conscription.djvu/4

 theory and practice tend away from repression and subordination and towards self-discipline; outward authority seeks gradually to efface itself in favour of the authority of the child's own developed character.

In a summary of lectures on "Discipline," by Lieut.-Colonel R. O. Hume, the storming of Badajos by Wellington's army on the night of 6th-7th April, 1812, is referred to "as one of the most glorious feats of arms recorded in our military history." Col. Hume cites this at the end of his summary, and tells the recruits to whom he addresses himself that their training in "implicit obedience" is but to fit them for like glorious deeds.

Col. Hume's illustration is an unfortunate one for advocates of the moral benefits of military discipline. The historian of the Peninsular War thus describes the scene that followed the storming of Badajos:—

"Now commenced that wild and desperate wickedness which tarnished the lustre of the soldier's heroism. All, indeed, were not alike; hundreds risked and many lost their lives in striving to stop the violence, but madness generally prevailed, and as the worst men were leaders here all the dreadful passions of human nature were displayed. Shameless rapacity, brutal intemperance, savage lust, cruelty and murder, shrieks and piteous lamentations, groans, shouts, imprecations, the hissing of fires bursting from the houses, the crashing of doors and windows, and the report of muskets used in violence, resounded for two days and nights in the streets of Badajos! On the third, when the city was sacked, when the soldiers were exhausted by their own excesses, the tumult rather subsided than was quelled. The wounded men were then attended to, the dead disposed of."

The French and German nations have not found the moral benefits of conscription; indeed there is abundant testimony of a directly opposite character. Bebel used, once a year, to make a long speech in the Reichstag on instances of immorality in the army. Anatole France, the great French author, characterises the barracks as "an abomination, the most hideous invention of modern civilisation"; while Drumont, a strong Nationalist, said: "Compulsory military service, far from being a school of morals, is a school of drunkenness, idleness and debauchery."

Very numerous instances of ill-treatment by officers in conscript armies have taken place, and this is one factor in the causation of the high rate of suicide among conscript soldiers. The comparative rates are:—

These, be it remembered, are all, or nearly all, in their prime, when the hold on life should be strongest. The suicide rate for the