This absolute unity of sentiment between the military and civil populations is a great compensation for the burden of universal service. Another is the increase of manliness and the improvement of national health. Of the reality of this improvement I cannot entertain a doubt, having myself frequently known young men who had gained greatly in strength and activity by their military service, and who felt and acknowledged the benefit. This is peculiarly valuable in France on account of the too close confinement of youths in the public schools. The universality of military service has been accompanied by a great increase in the number and activity of the gymnastic societies, and it has led to much military drill within the schools themselves. The sons of peasants acquire some education in the army, which is a valuable instrument for spreading a certain amount of elementary culture, and even more than that, through the regimental libraries. The sons of gentlemen, besides the benefit of physical exercise, are often stimulated, by the hope of promotion, to improve the education they already possess.[21] [Sidenote: Effect of National Armies on Peace and War.] [Sidenote: Possible Consequences of an English National Army.] Before leaving the subject of a national army in France, it may be well to consider its effect on peace and war. Experience proves that national armies are essentially peaceful institutions, _on condition that they are combined with parliamentary government_. Everybody has relations in the national army, consequently it is everybody’s desire that unnecessary bloodshed be avoided. Popular French feeling was intensely, and I believe universally, averse to the war in Tonquin; and the sacrifices required for those distant expeditions ruined the political career of a most able minister, Jules Ferry, a man of extraordinary capacity and strength of will. Under free institutions ministers dread a personal effacement of this kind, and Ferry’s example has had a salutary effect. As it is, the occupation of Tonquin may at any time be abandoned through a refusal of the credits. It is not improbable that with an English national army there might be a growing objection to the prolonged occupation of India. Even the authoritative monarch of Germany could not, by an imperial caprice, despatch the national army to conquer the Chinese Empire. In France, every imaginable war is unpopular, except the one for the recovery of the lost provinces, and there is no desire to undertake even that patriotic war of deliverance without the certainty of success. [Sidenote: Conscription repugnant to English Feeling.] [Sidenote: Burden of a National Army not Intolerable.] [Sidenote: English Social Distinctions.] [Sidenote: Vanities and Gentilities.]