the establishments in the past were fixed at so low a figure that, when they were raised to the strength required for efficiency, it necessitated an unusually large influx of recruits. The second is the necessity that arose in 1885 for sending extra drafts to augment the strength of the battalions in India, and this increased the evil. The defect, however, is, we may hope, only a temporary one, which is in course of rectifying itself—a result that will be hastened by very few men passing to the reserve during the current year, owing to the extra year's service with the colours imposed in 1881.

The battalion in India, in common with all those serving abroad, is much more favourably situated in respect to the age and service of the men. In it the average age of the privates was, on January 1, from twenty-three to twenty-four years, and their average service four years. This is owing to the circumstance that men are not ordinarily sent to India until they are twenty years of age, and often not until they are older.

If some exception must be taken to the age of a large proportion of the men in the home battalion, there is nothing to complain of in regard to their physical qualifications, and the battalion abroad is naturally better situated in this respect also. Taking the noncommissioned officers and men of the former together, the average chest measurement was, on the 1st of January, thirty-six and a half inches, and the average height five feet six inches, which, considering the large proportion of young soldiers, is not unsatisfactory. These figures are taken from the regimental measurements, and are a fair sample of regiments that obtain their recruits from agricultural districts. There are many regiments, particularly those dependent mainly upon manufacturing towns for their recruits, that cannot show so favourable a record; but this is owing in a great degree to the unprecedented number of recruits it has been necessary to take to complete the establishments during the past two years, and to the fact that the great majority of more developed soldiers have been sent abroad. If only the establishments be kept in future at a fixed and adequate strength, the necessity will not exist for recruiting at high pressure, and a stricter selection will become possible.

It is not in physique alone that the agricultural districts have, generally speaking, the advantage. The recruits drawn from them come from a steady and orderly class, and give little or no trouble in the regiments they join. The average effectives during the past year in the home battalion numbered nearly 800 non-commissioned officers and men. The total number of trials by court-martial, which represent all the more serious offences, was only twenty-eight, of which all except two were for purely military transgressions, while summary punishments were awarded to ninety-nine men for offences sufficiently serious to entail an entry in the regimental defaulters' book and to 252 men for trivial derelictions of duty, dealt with in a

large proportion of cases by simple reprimand. During the same period only fifty-two men were fined for drunkenness.

That this good conduct is continued by the men of this regiment during their subsequent service is evidenced by the fact that in the foreign battalion, where the longer service of the men allows of their obtaining good-conduct badges, there are as many as 697 men wearing them, and the deposits in the regimental savings bank amount to over 3,000l.

This is eminently satisfactory, and though regiments differ very much in this respect as in others, there is no doubt that serious crime has materially decreased of late years in the army; though the record of court-martials is unfortunately still swelled by deserters during the first years of service. The important modifications introduced by H.R.H. the Field Marshal Commanding-in-Chief a few months ago in the system of dealing with offences in the army have already in the short period that has since elapsed, had a marked effect in diminishing the number of courts-martial, and consequently the number of men in our military prisons; and it may confidently be anticipated that at the end of the present year the statistics of crimes and punishments will compare very favourably with those of past periods.

So long as the previous career of a man offering himself as a recruit has to be taken on trust, it will not be possible to guard against bad characters being admitted, but it is very desirable that such men should not be allowed to remain in the army, and of recent years increased facilities have been given for getting rid of them. A considerable proportion of this class are men who have already served and been dismissed, or who while actually belonging to one regiment enlist fraudulently in another. They give a great deal of unnecessary trouble and entail much useless expense, which could be easily avoided by the adoption of the simple expedient, so often recommended, of an indelible distinctive mark to be borne by all officers and soldiers. This simple measure would confer an inestimable boon on the men themselves, for it would have the effect of absolutely preventing fraudulent enlistment, and would remove from the barrackroom a class of men who have the worst influence upon the young soldier, and whose presence often deters men of a better class from joining.

In one respect this regiment and others recruiting under similar conditions are at a like disadvantage. The standard of education is not high, and, though much is done to remedy this in the regimental school after the men join, the standard attained to does not ordinarily bear comparison with that obtaining in regiments recruited in town districts.

We find, for instance, in the home battalion on the 1st of January, 275 men of inferior educational attainments, against 584 holding

school certificates of the various grades. Even this is a vast improvement over the number in possession of certificates a few years ago, and may be attributed, in part at least, to the working of the Education Act. As the effects of this measure become more generally felt throughout the country, this will be rectified, and in the meantime the excellent schools with which our regiments are provided go far to rectify the deficiency.

Taken altogether, there is little doubt that a better class of men does join the infantry than was the case formerly, though this is more apparent in some regiments than others, according to the conditions under which they recruit. The more it is carried out in the regimental district alone, the more this will come to be the case, for the indifferent characters will not care to join the regiment belonging to their own locality. The regiment with which we are more particularly concerned is an instance of this. The number of recruits who joined it last year from its own district was 292, being 82 per cent. of the total number enlisted for it, and, on the 1st of January, of the 2,055 non-commissioned officers and men serving in the regiment and its depôt, 1,421, or nearly 75 per cent., were born in the district.

The great majority of the men enlisted in the district were agricultural labourers, of whom there were 259, the balance being made up of men belonging to the following miscellaneous trades:

In each district the class of men joining the infantry varies according to the occupations of its inhabitants. To instance another district embracing a manufacturing area, we find that the recruits enlisted last year were drawn from the following classes :

Labourers, servants, &c.

283

Trades, principally cotton operatives and ironworkers 132
Mechanics

58

ARTISAN ATHEISM.

THE article on this subject in the February number of this Review has brought to its writer many letters, chiefly from clergymen, who say (with Socrates to Callicles), 'I ask you not for a love of contention, but because I really want to know in what way you think that affairs should be administered among us;' and in reply I cannot but think of the words (also of Socrates) to Alcibiades, 'Did you ever know a man wise in anything who was unable to impart his particular wisdom?' though I do not mean that I have any wisdom to impart, but that my correspondents have and by their office profess to have. One writes to me: I should be really grateful to you if you would tell me what you exactly mean by "preaching God as the living Ruler of the world," and why doing so would be a special means of getting at artisans.' Another: 'I fail to understand what you mean by calling upon us to preach God as the living Ruler of the world apart from Bible, Church creeds, &c., or how we are to preach a declaration of God governing the world, a knowledge of whom is the kingdom of heaven, whose influence is found in everyday life, unless that knowledge is derived from sources given by God and A third: We know next applied by means appointed by Christ.' to nothing of the so-called atheistic artisan; there are insurmountable obstacles to any real sympathy between us;' and further: 'How am I to know what the working man really thinks and wants? What am I to read? What periodicals truly reflect his mind?'

6

There are many correspondents not clerical-one busily engaged in business, who proposes a practical solution of the difficulty by a radical method; that of spending 20,000l. for the collection, arrangement, and comparison of all that can be collected, arranged, and compared about the Scriptures, so that it shall be settled once for all what is their value. The earnestness of the writer commands all respect, and he has discussed at considerable length the merits of this proposal.

All this takes me back to my early life. I am in a famous city church, listening to a sermon I cannot understand; and walking home I ask my brother, two years my senior, whether, if I went to the rector's house to ask enlightenment, the footman would kick me down the four white steps. As a practical compromise, the next Sunday we