In writing as we have just written it must not
be supposed that we imagine that the success of his scheme has been so great as to warrant the assumption that there will be no need to fall back upon compulsion No one at the moment, not even Lord Derby himself, knows whether the figures will show that the young unmarried men have come forward in such large numbers as to make it possible to say that the shirkers are a negligible quantity, and that with perfect good faith to the married men we can be content with what we have got. The actual figures and the practical conclusions to be drawn from them will be told to the country by Mr. Asquith on Tuesday next. But whatever they may be, we know that Lord Derby, in spite of many very serious obstacles and difficulties and in a time too short for perfect preparation, has arrayed the nation, and adopted that system of scientific, recruiting which seemed, till he appeared on the scene, one to which the Government would never consent.
