Conscription has been defined as the call to military service by the drawing of lots, a certain annual contingent of men for the army being selected by lot from the youths who have reached military age, while a man with sufficient means has the right to buy himself off, or pay for a substitute. This system obtained in France, with intervals, from 1798 until 1872, when substitutes were abolished and personal military service made obligatory upon every Frenchman not physically incapacitated. All such must enter the army at the age of twenty; but those who choose to enlist may do so at eighteen. The term, originally twenty years, was extended by the Military Bill of 1888 to twenty-five—viz. three in the regular army, six and a half in the army reserve, six in the territorial army (militia), and nine and a half in the territorial reserve. At forty-five years of age liability to service ceases. A register is kept of the number of youths in France who reach the age of twenty in each year (about 280,000). All under 5 feet 2 inches in height are exempt; also any whose natural infirmities unfit them for active service; the eldest of a family of orphans; the only son of a widow, or of disabled fathers, or of fathers above seventy years of age; and the pupils at certain colleges. Moreover, if the younger of two brothers is efficient, the elder is exempt; and if of two only brothers one is already in the army, or has retired through wounds or infirmity, the other is exempt. Culprits and felons are not allowed to enlist.
A similar law of universal service has existed in Prussia since 1813, and in 1887 it was made even more severe than formerly throughout the whole German empire. Russia, Italy, and all the chief European nations have also adopted this method of recruiting.
In the United Kingdom a form of conscription was created by the Ballot Act of 1860 which provides for all males over 5 feet 2 inches between the ages of eighteen and thirty being called upon to serve in the militia, but is held in abeyance by an annual act of parliament. In the Channel Islands, service in the militia is always compulsory for all natives, tradesmen, and owners of real property, who are physically fit, from sixteen to forty-five years of age. Breaches of discipline are punished by the civil magistrate by fine or imprisonment.