In Canada as in Great Britain we enrolled a great army under the voluntary system. If it had been said a few years ago that the Dominion could secure 400,000 men for a war in Europe the statement would have been treated with derision. But the fact that voluntary enlistment has been so satisfactory is an argument for, not against, a compulsory draft. The need for selection is more imperative. Such great sacrifices demand our last effort to ensure that they shall not be in vain. The magnitude of the enlistment emphasizes the danger and the vital interest of Canada in the issue. It is admitted by the authorities that in a few months all available reinforcements will be exhausted. Appeal and persuasion have ceased to bring any considerable response, although not wholly without effect. There is no prospect of peace in the near future. We must, therefore, gradually withdraw from the war as our regiments become ineffective fighting units or supply such fresh troops as will meet the loss and wastage. There is no suggestion that fresh troops should be withheld. Even those who oppose the draft declare that adequate reinforcements must be provided. It may be that compulsion would not have been applied in Canada if voluntary recruiting could have been maintained, but with comparative failure of voluntary recruiting and little prospect of revival it is curious that the draft should be opposed if the necessity for reinforcements is admitted. XVIII. In 1863 Lincoln prepared an opinion on the draft for the Civil War in which he said, “At the beginning of the war, and ever since, a variety of motives, pressing some in one direction and some in the other, would be presented to the mind of each man physically fit for a soldier upon the combined effect of which motives he would, or would not, voluntarily enter the service. Among these motives would be patriotism, political bias, ambition, personal courage, love of adventure, want of employment and convenience or the opposites of some of these. We already have, and have had in the service, substantially all that can be obtained upon this voluntary weighing of motives. And yet we must somehow obtain more or relinquish the original object of the contest, together with all the blood and treasure already expended in the effort to secure it. To meet this necessity the law for the draft has been enacted. You who do not wish to be soldiers do not like the law. This is natural, nor does it imply want of patriotism. Nothing can be so just and necessary as to make us like it if it be disagreeable to us. We are prone, too, to find false arguments with which to excuse ourselves for opposing such disagreeable things. In this case, those who desire the rebellion to succeed, and others who seek reward in a different way, are very active in accommodating us with this class of arguments.” He added, “The republican institutions and territorial integrity of our country cannot be maintained without the further