However, it is not the of the service who join the volunteers, but men who would make their way anywhere. Many give for love what is in the other class extorted by fear. And here I am reminded of a conversation I once had with a young German during the war of . We were in a railway carriage travelling between Cologne and Coblentz, and my companion was full of abuse of everything British. We had no army, no fleet, "no nothing." He abused our soldiers as slaves.

"Come," said I at last, "they are not quite that. They are all volunteers."

When I had more fully explained he was absolutely astounded. Did I really mean that every soldier in the British forces was a warrior by his own choice?

said he at last, in a subdued tone,

As for the fighting qualities of the Volunteers I can say that the hastily raised troops of the French during the great war acquitted themselves as well, and better, than the regular army. Again, the Americans on both sides-Federal and Confederate -fought gallantly, although two-thirds of them were the rawest of raw recruits. Lord Wolseley has said somewhere that the discipline of an ordinary militia regiment is quite good enough to serve as a model for the entire service when an army is in the field. The marching of the Guards is a thing of beauty and a joy for ever, but something more is required before the enemy. That something more is obtained in a very short space of time. Only recently we have heard of the admirable conduct of Volunteers in Africa. It does not require much to make a citizen soldier into a first-rate " fighting-man."