William I. accustomed his people gradually to submit to this
compulsion. After 1720 registers were made of children subject to
military service, and in 1733 the "_canton_"[3] system was introduced.
The land was divided among the regiments; the citizens and peasants
were, with many exceptions, declared subject to military service. Every
year were the deficiencies in the regiments filled up through levies,
in which, it must be remarked by the way, the greatest despotism on the
part of the captains remained unpunished.

In Saxony they first succeeded, towards the end of the century, in
carrying on the conscription together with the enlisting. In other
parts, especially in small territories, that prospered less.

Thus the military system of Germany presents to our view this
remarkable phenomenon, that at the same time in which increased
intellectual development produced in the middle classes greater
pretensions, together with higher culture and morals, the despotism of
the rulers gradually effected another great political advance in the
life of the people--the beginning of our common feeling of the duty of
self-defence. And it is equally remarkable that this innovation did not
begin in the form of a great and wise measure, but in conjunction with
circumstances which would appear to be more especially adverse to it.
The greatest severity and unscrupulousness of a despotic state showed
itself precisely in that by which it prepared, though it did not carry
out, the greatest step in political progress.

Too brutal and unscrupulous was the conduct of the officers who had to
raise the levies, and too violent was the opposition and aversion of
the people. The young men left the country in masses; no threatening of
the gallows, of cutting off ears, or of confiscation of their property,
could stop the fugitives. More than once the fanatical soldier-zealot
Frederic William I. of Prussia was counteracted by the necessity of
sparing his kingdom, which threatened to be depopulated. Never could
more than half the number required be filled up by this conscription;
the other half of the deficiency had to be raised by enlistment.

The enlisting, also, in the first half of the eighteenth century, was
rougher work than it had been. The Sovereigns themselves were more
dangerous recruiting officers than the captains of the old
Landsknechte. And although the evils of this system were notorious, no
one knew how to remedy it. The rulers, it is