ant soldiers as
ever carried a rifle, but it had been afflicted ever since men could
remember with the bane and blight of politics and social influence. It
had never been really a serious profession, and its upper ranks had been
little better than the playground of the sons of the wealthy and
well-born.

Politician after politician on both sides had tried his hand at scheme
after scheme to improve the army. What one had done, the next had
undone, and the permanent War Office Officials had given more attention
to buttons and braids and caps than to business-like organisations of
fighting efficiency. The administration was, as it always had been, a
chaos of muddle. The higher ranks were rotten with inefficiency, and the
lower, aggravated and bewildered by change after change, had come to
look upon soldiering as a sort of game, the rules of which were being
constantly altered.

The Militia, the Yeomanry, and the Volunteers had been constantly
snubbed and worried by the authorities of Pall Mall. Private citizens,
willing to give time and money in order to learn the use of the rifle,
even if they could not join the Yeomanry or Volunteers, had been just
ignored. The War Office could see no use for a million able-bodied men
who had learned to shoot straight, besides they were only "damned
civilians," whose proper place was in their offices and shops. What
right had they with rifles? If they wanted exercise, let them go and
play golf, or cricket, or football. What had they to do with the defence
of their country and their homes?

But that million of irregular sharpshooters were badly wanted now. They
could have turned every hedgerow into a trench and cover against the foe
which would soon be marching over the fields and orchards and
hop-gardens of southern England. They would have known every yard of the
ground, and the turn of every path and road, and while the regular army
was doing its work they could have prevented many a turning movement of
the superior forces, shot down the horses of convoys and ammunition
trains, and made themselves generally objectionable to the enemy.

Now the men were there, full of fight and enthusiasm, but they had
neither ammunition nor rifles, and if they had had them, ninety per
cent. would not have known how to use them. Wherefore, those who were
responsible for the land defences of the country found themselves with
less than three hundred thousand trained and half-trained men, of all
arms,