restrain the military fury of an Alaric or a Genseric would have been altogether powerless over the conduct of those German hordes whose military excesses in France, in 1870, have left a lasting blot on their martial triumph and the character of their discipline; or that her efforts on behalf of peace, which more than a thousand years ago effectually reconciled the Angles and Mercians, the Franks and Lombards, would be wasted in helping to remove any standing causes of quarrel that may still exist between France and Germany, England and Russia, Italy and Austria. There are, indeed, hopeful signs, in spite of Canon Mozley’s apology of despair, that the priesthood of Christendom may yet reawake to a sense of its power and opportunities for removing from the world an evil custom which lies at the root of almost every other, and is the main cause and sustenance of crime and pauperism and disease. It is possible that we have already passed the worst period of indifference in this respect, or that it may some day prove only to have been connected with the animosities of rival sects, ever ready to avail themselves of the chances that war between different nations might severally bring to their several petty interests. With the subsidence of such animosities, it were reasonable to expect the Church to reassert the more genuine principle of her action and attitude--that no evil incident to human society is to be regarded as irremediable till every resource has been exhausted to cope with it, and every outlet of escape from it been proved to be a failure. Then, but not till then, is it becoming in Christian priests to utter the language of helplessness; then, but not till then, should the Church fold her hands in despair. CHAPTER VIII. CURIOSITIES OF MILITARY DISCIPLINE. _La discipline n’est que l’art d’inspirer aux soldats plus de peur de leurs officiers que des ennemis._--HELVETIUS. Increased severity of discipline--Limitation of the right of matrimony--Compulsory Church parade, and its origin--Atrocious military punishments--Reasons for the military love of red--The origin of bear-skin hats--Different qualities of bravery--Historical fears for the extinction of courage--The conquests of the cause of peace--Causes of the unpopularity of military service--The dulness of life in the ranks--The prevalence of desertion--Articles of war against malingering--Military artificial ophthalmia--The debasing influence of discipline illustrated from the old flogging system--The discipline of the Peninsular army--Attempts to make the service more popular, by raising the private’s wages, by shortening his term of service--The old recruiting system of France and Germany--The conscription imminent in England--The question of military service for women--The probable results of the conscription--Militarism answerable for Socialism.