d
into the Army. That leads inevitably to the amalgamation of the
volunteers with the regular Army, and is a death-blow to the specific
character of each of them. It means that henceforth the British Army,
like other armies, will be homogeneous, containing no other categories
than men with the colours and men in reserves, classified according to
the immediacy of their liability to be called up. The volunteer
commanding officer disappears, and with him the volunteer officer as
such. For now that it is known that the Government will employ
non-professional officers only as company officers under professional
field officers, no one will take a volunteer commission with the idea of
serving for many years from subaltern to commanding officer. What has
hitherto been the volunteer force will therefore become a force
administered by professional paid officers. It will cost more, and it
will become a branch of the Army. In short, the Government has
unwittingly taken a step of which the inevitable consequence is
conscription.

But from this follows another change, equally unsuspected by the
Ministry. The day that the Nation discovers, as it is now beginning to
discover, that war makes its claims on every man and on every household,
there will be no more toleration of the unskilled management that is
inseparable from the practice of choosing a. Secretary of State for War
for his ignorance of the subject. The British Nation is at length
opening its eyes to the truth that war is a serious matter, and that the
neglect of it in peace is costly in blood and perilous to the body
politic. When its eyes are wide open it will insist on putting knowledge
in power over the Army and the Navy. Thus is coming about, to the
infinite benefit of the community, the overthrow of that noxious sham,
the party politician.

Late in the day, when the position has become what it is, the
Government has thought of the elementary principle that if you want to
carry on a war you should begin by finding a commander in whom you have
confidence. Accordingly at the eleventh hour Ministers have remembered
that the Nation trusts Lord Roberts. This is proof positive that the
Government was not in earnest before the late reverses, for had they
been serious they would have appointed Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener
at the outset. The precedent is useful by what it suggests; for, if
during a war you can strengthen the military direction by giving the
authority to the