factories of the confederation for the manufacture of powder and percussion caps, as well as arms, gun-carriages, &c. The colonel of cavalry and the colonel of rifles direct all that relates to their respective arms, and recommend the necessary improvements. If these inspectors detect in the contingent of any canton any want of perfection in drill, they have the power to order such additional drill as may bring the men up to the proper standard.

Great care is taken in the instruction and selection of officers. The officers of infantry, up to the grade of major, are appointed by the cantonal authorities; the higher officers by the federal government. But no officers can be appointed to the special arms of engineers, artillery, and cavalry, except such as have gone through a course of instruction at a military school appropriate to each arm. No one can become a non-commissioned officer who has not served at least one year as a soldier, nor a commissioned officer except after two years' service. Candidates for promotion must pass a public examination, before a commission, both in theoretical and practical knowledge. Promotion is given, according to seniority, up to the grade of first lieutenant. Captains are chosen from among the lieutenants without regard to seniority. To be appointed major, eight years' service as an officer is required, of which, at least, twoyears as captain. For a lieutenant-colonel, ten years' service as officer, of which, at least, four as major of the special arm. For a colonel, twelve years' service as an officer is required, of which, at least, four years as "commandant," or in a higher grade. In the Swiss service there is no higher rank than that of colonel. When a colonel has been appointed commander-inchief of the army, he receives, for the time being, the title of general, which he afterwards retains by courtesy.

The system which obliges every man to serve under arms, unless released by certain fixed rules, need not be adopted by us. We may rely upon voluntary enlistments to fill our armies, but the State should see to it that these volunteers are so instructed in a soldier's duties as to be able to serve their country with efficiency and at once; and that a body of officers is trained up who will lead these men to victory without the loss of a single life that might have been spared. If, when an army is

called into the field, the first six or eight months are to be spent in teaching the men and officers the elements of their business, we shall certainly have no success in the first campaign; and if our enemy has a trained army of anything like adequate force, we shall be beaten before we have learned to fight. The voyage from Southampton and Havre to Massachusetts Bay is not so much longer than that to Sebastopol that we may not live to see a European army landed on our shores. At all events we ought to be ready to meet any foe, either foreign or domestic, at any time, unless we are willing to hold our democracy at the sufferance of the aristocracies.

To render our volunteer system effective, the following scheme is proposed: Let the law require that every man shall perform a certain amount of drill before he is allowed to vote. We require now that every voter should know how to read and write, and it is but reasonable that he should also know how to sustain his ballot by his bayonet when it becomes necessary. Young men between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one should be placed in camps of instruction for six weeks during each of these three years. A certificate from the proper officers that this amount of drill had been performed by the voter should be required before his name is inscribed upon the voting lists.

About 12,500 young men arrive every year at the age of eighteen in this State. If we deduct 2500 for exempts the allowance would probably be ample. We should then have 10,000 fresh recruits offering themselves for instruction every year, and as the instruction would extend through three years, a body of 30,000 young men would be in camp every year. From these at least thirty regiments of infantry and rifles might be formed, besides a full proportion of the special arms of engineers, artillery, and cavalry. The head-quarters of these regiments, and their camps, might be distributed among districts corresponding, for example, to the congressional districts,

*The census of this State for 1855 shows 10.34 per cent. of the population to be between the ages of fifteen and twenty. It is accurate enough for the present purpose to assume that one per cent. of the population consists of males in their nineteenth year, the fact being probably a slight excess above this proportion.

† The ordinary proportion in European armies is one-fifth of cavalry and three pieces of cannon to a thousand men. Thus a body of 30,000 men would include 6000 cavalry and 90 field-pieces.

and containing nearly equal populations. A regiment would be composed of one third raw recruits, one third of men in their second year, and one third of men in their third year; but this would not produce greater fluctuation in the composition of regiments than exists in the standing army of Prussia under their present system. The officers, holding their positions through several years, would do much to preserve the identity of the regiments. In time of war, men who had served their apprenticeship in a particular regiment, recruited from a certain neighborhood, a regiment with a history, a reputation, and a name, would rush into its ranks to sustain its reputation and advance its name.

That this system would give sufficient training to make effective soldiers is proved by the experience of Switzerland. It should be provided that the youths should be well instructed in the school of the soldier before joining the camps, and this would be easily done at the public schools.

There are but two methods by which officers can be made competent to discharge the responsible duties of their position: either by long experience of actual warfare, or by a military education. But, as we hope and expect to live in a state of peace for the most part, we cannot rely upon a method which after a long peace produces good officers only at the end of a long war. We must therefore follow the example of every civilized nation and provide officers with a thorough military education. In Switzerland the Military School at Thun supplies educated officers, and if the State of Massachusetts is to have an effective military system, if she expects to be able hereafter to send away her volunteers under officers who will not lead them like sheep to the slaughter, she must establish a State Military School whose standard of discipline and instruction shall be at least as high as that of West Point Academy. Thirty regiments of infantry require 1050 commissioned officers besides chaplains and surgeons. The special arms require officers in a larger proportion and more highly accomplished. Add to these the general officers, the staff and the commissariat, and you require nearly 1200 commissioned officers for a body of 30,000 men. But you cannot find 1200 fit men in Massachusetts unless you make them fit; and to place soldiers under officers who are unfit is to commit murder.

Thanks to our common-school system and our Puritan blood, we know that our soldiers will not disgrace their State in whatever situation they may be placed, but we owe it to them and to ourselves to require of those whose orders they are sworn to obey, a special knowledge of their difficult art, and we cannot require this knowledge unless we supply the means of obtaining it.

The Military School of Massachusetts should be based upon the plan of the Polytechnic School at Paris. It should be the best institution in the State for young men to obtain a scientific education as distinguished from a literary education. Add to the scientific course the elements of military discipline and drill, and the application of science to the military art, and the institution produces valuable officers. The course of instruction should be such that the best engineers, architects, chemists, mechanicians, and constructors, would be graduates of this school, as our best engineers have been from West Point, and as some of the most distinguished scientific men in France have been from the Polytechnic School.

Pupils would be admitted between the ages of sixteen and twenty. The course would be of four years. The examination for admittance would be much more severe than that at West Point, and would require such a degree of proficiency in mathematics, geography, history, and the French language, as is to be obtained by the best pupils of the English high schools and academies of our State. The examinations would be in subjects and not in particular books, and would include arithmetic, integral and fractional, logarithms, geometry, the elements of algebra and of plane trigonometry, the history of the United States, and French, at least so far as to read with facility. The course followed by the school would include the advanced branches of mathematics, mechanics, and the uses of machinery, chemistry, topography, drawing of figures and landscapes, of machines and topographical drawing, fortification, tactics, military history, the attack and defence of places, artillery and surveying. The pupils would be eight months within doors, and four months in camp.

The cost of establishing the school should be defrayed partly by the State government, and partly by individuals; and its current expenses should be met partly by the State and partly

by the pupils. Pupils, the sons of citizens of other States, would pay a double rate. The government of the school should be appointed jointly by the State and by its private patrons.

Pupils are admitted to the Polytechnic School only after severe examinations held at stated times at Paris and in the provinces. Any young Frenchman between sixteen and twenty, of sound constitution, may compete. The examination consists of written compositions and of two oral examinations. By the compositions and the first oral examination the weaker candidates are discovered and rejected. The second oral examination determines the relative rank of those who are admitted. About one hundred pupils enter yearly. The annual charge for tuition and board is $240. The cost of the outfit, about $125, is fixed yearly by the minister of war. four free scholarships, which may be divided into half scholarships for those whose parents cannot meet the expense, provided the pupils are in the two first thirds on the lists of admission, or of the examination on passing from the first to the second year.

There are twenty

The course is of two years, and includes analytical mechanics, descriptive geometry, physics, chemistry, geodesy, topography, machinery, social arithmetic or statistics, architecture, French composition, French and German languages, drawing of figures, landscapes, machines, and topographical drawing. Graduates from this school go to the special schools of instruction for engineering and artillery, and for the staff, each of which requires two years.

At the Military Academy at Brussels for officers of the Belgian army, who are among the most accomplished in Europe, the studies are of two kinds, general and special. The former includes mathematics, mechanics, descriptive geometry, chemistry, astronomy, architecture, the history of the military art and belles lettres. This course occupies two years. The special course includes the arts of fortification and artillery, with that of military construction and tactics. This course continues two years, and students are required to perform practical exercises, and to write memoirs accompanied by plans on military subjects. The mathematical instruction includes the differential calculus, trigonometry, geometry, and the analytical branches of mathematics. The course of military history