The present expensive recruiting establishments throughout the United Kingdom might be greatly reduced, as in future they could only be required for certain colonial corps, which I shall have to speak of hereafter. The cruelty of this system of ballot, although rendered almost as mild as that at present in force for the militia, would no doubt be much talked of by pretenders to philanthropy; and the people might be made to suppose, that it was intended to introduce as many horrors into it, as attend a Russian conscription; but the cases would be widely different. In Russia public opinion is of no weight, and is openly set at defiance. In Great Britain it is all powerful, and must be respected. I will not even talk of a French conscription, in which the youth of France gloried in the days of Napoleon. It may probably be asked, would you take away a father, and leave a large and perhaps helpless family to starve or become a burden upon the parish; or would you take away the only son of a widow, or her only one fit for agricultural purposes? I answer--that I intend to do no such thing--but let these philanthropists, and the parish or district, and especially the wealthy part of it, make timely arrangements to find substitutes for such fathers or sons, if they have not the means to do so themselves; and thus such contingencies could be easily met, by what would only be a charitable duty, which one man owes to another, if he presumes to say that his heart is influenced by correct christian feeling. CHAP. II Young gentlemen not under the age of sixteen, and not above nineteen, who may have prepared themselves for the army, by studying at any military college, academy, or other institution, should be selected for appointments to engineers, &c., but they ought always to be subjected to a previous examination, in order that it may be ascertained that they have been properly educated. Non-commissioned officers, who may bear high characters in their regiments, ought also to be occasionally appointed to ensigncies, provided they have been so well educated as to pass an examination, but not otherwise, however meritorious their conduct may have been. But I am decidedly of opinion, and many will agree with me, that no captain should ever be promoted to the rank of Field Officer, who could not pass a much stricter examination before a board which should be established for this purpose, and also for examining candidates for first appointments to cavalry, infantry, engineers, and artillery; and this would obviate the necessity of having expensive institutions for public military education.