Conscription

(-skrip's hun.) [L. conscriptio.] (Mil.) The compulsory system of recruitment that the French have borrowed from the ancient Romans, and which is still used in that and some other foreign countries The law was first used in 1798, as the law of the Direc tory, according to which all French men between the ages of 20 and 30 are liable to serve in the regular army, and the selection from them is to be made by lot. A similar system, called drafting, was occasionally resorted to in this country during the Civil War. [s. 220]