"The practice of compulsorily enrolling men for defence against invasion can be traced from before the time of Alfred the Great, when every man between 18 and 60 had to serve right up to the time of the Napoleonic wars."—Saturday Review.
It was found, however, that men who had enlisted in Alfred the Great's time at the age of sixty were of little real use in the Napoleonic wars.
FLEET VISIONS SEEN THROUGH GERMAN EYES.
[A number of curious facts about the British Army, lately gathered from German sources, may be supplemented by some further information of interest bearing on our Fleet.]
The facts may be obscured for purposes of recruiting, but it remains true that British seamen are no better than serfs. Their officers have the most complete proprietorship in their persons and can do with them what they like, as in the case of the English captain who had a favourite shark, which followed his ship, and to which he threw an A.B. each morning. That their slavery is acknowledged by the men is shown by their custom of referring to the Captain as "The Owner."
The savagery of the British Navy has passed into a by-word, and the bluejackets popularly go by the name of Jack Tartars.
It is all very well for America to protest her neutrality to Berlin, but how can we ignore the fact that President Wilson actually has a seat on the board of the British Admiralty—where he is known as "Tug" Wilson. He is even the author of a work aimed deliberately at us, and entitled Der Tug.