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re Lh WHAT WAS THE ORIGIN OF MOP MILITARY CONSCRIPTION AND W! WERE SOME OF THE EFFECTS? The first military conscription law in the m« sense was passed in France in 1708. tt prescribe. liability of young mea to serve if required from twentieth to twenty-flth year of age. Col. Frederick Natusch, C.B., wrote in the ele edition of the Eacyelopedia Brittanica (1910): There jis perhaps no Jaw on the statute-books of an nation which hay exercised a more far-reaching influcn on the future of humanity than this Hithle-known Freac act of 1798, introduced by General Jourdan to the Counc of the 500, for it «was dhe power thus conferred upen th French government which alone rendered the Napoteon: policy of conquest possible, “T can afford to expend thirty thousand m month!” this boast of Napoleon’s, made to Metterni Schonbraun in 1805, has determined the trend of ¢ from that day forward, not only on the battlefield also in the workshops, and forms even at the presen the chief guaranice for peace, stability and econ development upon the continent of Europe. (Italics plied.) What had become of this guarantee of peac 1914? by 1939? To continue from the Encyclopedia Brittanica; The essential importance of the event lies in thi that at a critical moment this law, passed by an obsent body of men—absolutely in defiance of tis opinion of th grealest teformer that Frunce at that moment had di: covered, Carust, and of the feclings of a very large pr portion of the whule community-—-becaine permanent b the action of causes eet in motion by Napoleon, whic ultimately compelled all Furope to adopt similar legi tation. Prussia pursued this Napoleonic idea of conser: to its logical conclusion, and in 1806 “definitely afi the principle of universal service without distinctic class or right of exemption by purchase.” Can an doubt the disastrous resilis for the world of 123 ; 13)