"Our people desire their army to be as it is, otherwise it would not be as it is. No Kaiser, or Bureaucracy, or General Staff could impose such a system against the public will and conscience. Your people, on the other hand, have refused _as a people_ to accept the military obligation. By various devices they endeavour to fix the burden on the shoulders of individuals. Is this the true meaning of the word 'voluntary'--_to refuse?_ ... Sir, I desire to be civil; but was there ever a more conspicuous instance of cant in the whole history of the world, than your self-righteous boastings about your 'voluntary' military system? "You may wonder why I bracket these two things together--your soul-searchings about amusements of all kinds, and your nonsensical panegyrics on the voluntary' principle.... To my eyes they are very closely connected. [Sidenote: THE DUTY OF CHEERFULNESS] "Cheerfulness is a duty in time of war. Every man or woman who smiles, and keeps a good heart, and goes about his or her day's work gaily, helps by so much to sustain the national spirit. Not good, but harm, is done to the conduct of the war, {417} by moping and brooding over casualty lists, and by speculations as to disasters which have occurred, or are thought to be imminent. But there is one essential preliminary to national cheerfulness--before a nation can be cheerful it must have a good conscience; and it cannot have a good conscience unless it has done its duty. "Your nation has a bad conscience. The reason is that, _as a nation_, it has not done its duty. This may be the fault of the leaders who have not dared to speak the word of command. But the fact remains, that you well know--or at any rate suspect in your hearts--that you have not done your whole duty. And consequently you cannot be really cheerful about anything. As you go about your daily work or recreations, you are all the while looking back over your shoulders with misgiving. _As a nation_ you have not--even yet--dedicated yourselves to this war. When you have done so--if ever you do--your burden of gloom and mistrust will fall from your back, like that of _Christian_ as he passed along the highway, which is fenced on either side with the Wall that is called _Salvation_." In the great American Civil War, the Southern States, which aimed at breaking away from the Union, adopted conscription within a year from the beginning. They were brave fighters; but they were poor, and they were in a small minority. The Northern States--confident in their numbers and wealth--relied at first upon the voluntary system. It gave them great and gallant armies; but these was not enough; and as months went by President Lincoln realised that they were not enough. {418}