398 LAND REFORM 



ing the youth of the country In physical fitness and in 

 the use of the rifle. He urges that rifle-shooting 

 should be made a national pursuit, so that skill in the 

 use of the rifle may be got in the same way as skill 

 in the long-bow was gotten in the olden days in 

 England. 



With this view he suggests that rifle clubs should be 

 formed and means of practising rifle-shooting provided 

 in towns and villages. He makes the important and 

 assuring assertion that a system such as he has 

 sketched "would not only place the country in abso- 

 lute safety against invasion, but would render any 

 attempt at invasion out of the question." Lord 

 Roberts refers to the fact that one hundred years ago, 

 with a population much less than half of that of the 

 present time, our military force was much greater in 

 numbers than it is now. But he must remember that 

 one hundred years ago our villages and country towns 

 were still teeming with people, while now they are 

 deserted. It is for Lord Roberts (and the country) 

 to consider whether or not his patriotic aims would not 

 be more naturally and effectually secured by the 

 advocacy of a scheme of Land Reform that would 

 surely have the effect of re-peopling our country-sides, 

 for "it is the plough that yieldeth the best souldiers " 

 (Lord Bacon). If these conditions were restored, 

 Lord Roberts's task would be an easy one. He could 

 say with effect of the rifle what Roger Ascham said of 

 the weapon of his day, the deadly long-bow, " Youth 

 should use it for the most honest pastime in peace, that 

 men might handle it as a most sure weapon in war."^ 



^ This is another instance of the gain we should get by a study of the 

 wisdom of our forefathers. Roger Ascham hved and wrote in the 

 sixteenth century. He was a great scholar, but being weak in body he 



