RECRUITING. 
65 
between tlie past and the future in this matter is of much value ; I have 
been told on very high authority, that it is a matter of congratulation 
that the character of our recruits is higher than the character of the men 
in the Peninsular War. Well, I am rejoiced to think it is, and I think 
it is a great source of satisfaction ; but really I would, even at the sacri¬ 
fice of a little of that excellent moral character, which undoubtedly our 
recruits possess, be pleased to have in our regiments some of the class 
of men who fought in the Peninsular War (hear, hear, and applause). 
Really I do not think there is much to be made out of that argument ; 
the world has gone forward since the Peninsular War, and in every 
rank of life there is now a totally different way of looking at the 
situations which life presents, a different way of acting, thinking, and 
speaking; and if you could not point to progress of that kind in the 
army as well as in every other branch of society, civil and military, then 
we should indeed have an army of which no man could be proud. 
A Stupid Fallacy Exposed. 
I have noticed that the same authority I quoted just now, and other 
authorities of equal and possibly of even greater distinction, have drawn 
attention to the fact that the standard of height in our army is higher 
than that of foreign armies. Well, let me repeat once more that this 
argument, resting on a comparison of standard, is illusory, that it is a 
mere deception, and I cannot say why it is to be trotted out again. 
The standard in our army is the standard which is meant to exclude, 
and you lower your standard to 5 feet 3^ inches in order to keep out 
men below that standard. In the German Army the standard is 5 feet 
1 inch. Why ? Because you want to get everybody above that 
standard into the army, and you do get everybody above that standard 
into the army. If you want to make a comparison of any value at all 
between a foreign army and our own (which, by the way, I think is 
quite irrelevant, because our circumstances are so different) you would 
have to take in this country every man not physically incapable above 
5 feet 1 inch, and see what the standard came out at then. You would 
get all the young fellows in bicycling clubs, all the men who hunt, 
the men who row, and the men who ride ; you would get the whole 
pick and flower of our population, and you would, of course, get such 
a magnificent result that we need have no fear at all for the quality of 
the material. But, as I say, what happens in a foreign army is that 
you take every man above 5 feet 1 inch, you put the smaller men into 
the train and subsidiary departments of the army, and the more 
physically competent men into the combatant ranks. I do think it is 
time we had heard the last of that argument which has no basis in fact, 
and is quite illusory (applause). 
The Lines on which Reform is Possible. 
Now I am sure I have said enough to have made clear to you 
what, to my mind, are the lines on which the relief from this intolerable 
situatioAshould be sought. We ought, in my opinion, first of all to 
