in the discharge of the duty as part of the force em- | any other objection can be reasonably made to them ployed for that purpose. by other States. It is not within the purview of this inquiry to suggest the time when or the circumstances under which any of the repeals, modifications or amendments above suggested may be best made, farther than to say that in all cases where repeal, modification, or amendment, may be deemed necessary to revoke an unconstitutional provision, or make it consistent with constitutional principles, or remove any appearance of conflict therewith, it obviously should be done without condition or delay, as under no circumstances should an unconstitutional This distinction was clearly taken and established by the Supreme Court of this State, in Ela v. Smith and others, 5 Gray Rep. 121. The Court, p. 142, say: "The right and duty of calling out a military force to repress and prevent an anticipated riot, cannot be made to depend in any degree upon the cause of such threatened disturbance of the peace." "It is equally the duty of the civil officers to take all proper steps to prevent a threatened riot or mob, whether it was likely to arise from the enforcement of a constitutional or unconstitutional law.” Any exception, therefore, to the constitutional-provision, or one of doubtful construction in that ity of this law on the ground that it subjects the people to lawless violence, by withdrawing the military aid relied upon on occasions of anticipated riot, seems untenable, inasmuch as the right so to call upon it, on the occasion of popular commotion caused by efforts to seize and return an alleged fugitive from slavery, is the same as in any other case of disturbance. respect, be permitted to remain on the statute-book. The remarks thus offered upon this important and interesting topic are submitted, not in any pride of opinion, but with much diffidence, solely for the purpose of assisting in the attainment and diffusion of accurate information as to the real nature of the laws in question, whose constitutionality and propriety have been so extensively and vigorously assailed, and with so much danger of injury, as it is feared, to the good name and honor of Massachusetts. And if the effect shall be, by eliciting discussion, to prove that the views presented, or any of them, are erroneous, and so lead to satisfactory knowledge upon the subject, the purpose for which they are thus given to the public will have been No exception of unconstitutionality is known to have been taken to the sixty-seventh section, which provides that no person holding a judicial office under the laws of the U. S., or the office of Commissioner of the Circuit Court of the U. S. shall hold any judicial office under the Constitution and laws of this State; or to the limitations there imposed upon the powers of Justices of the Peace; and it is not perceived that | fully answered. A PLAN FOR MILITARY EDUCATION IN MASSACHUSETTS. BY EDMUND DWIGHT. BOSTON: LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY. THE following observations are submitted with the diffidence which a civilian must feel in treating of a military subject, and in the hope that they may be of some value in determining the best method of reaching the desired result. The following are among the authorities relied on for statements of fact: Federal and Cantonal Laws of the Swiss Militia. Report of a Select Committee on the Sandhurst Royal Military College, 1855. Vauchelle Cours d' Administration Militaire. Report of the Commission appointed to examine into the Organization, System of Discipline and Course of Instruction of the U. S. Military Academy at West Point, Dec. 1860. Senate Mis. Doc. No. 3. RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE: PRINTED BY H. O. HOUGHTON. MILITARY EDUCATION. "Representative institutions necessarily depend for permanence upon the readiness of the people to fight for them in case of their being endangered." J. S. MILL. THE experience of Massachusetts in the present war is enough to show the necessity of a thorough military organization for the future. Two objects are to be accomplished: First, Every man in the State should be drilled, trained in the duties of the soldier, accustomed to the use of arms, and taught the manœuvres of troops. Second, — A body of officers must be created, thoroughly accomplished in their profession, to whom the lives of our men can be safely intrusted. Of the two the latter is perhaps the most essential, because it requires more time to educate an officer than a soldier, and if he is left to the teachings of experience the price of the lessons is paid in men's lives. But the necessity of diffusing among the whole people the elements of a soldier's training grows daily more pressing. As we become less an agricultural and more a manufacturing and commercial people, and the State is more densely settled, the use of arms becomes less habitual. Many of our volunteers never loaded a musket till they were within sight of the Potomac. The tendency of modern warfare is to give the victory to the largest force. But as the force is increased so must the discipline of the men and the skill of the officers be brought to a higher point, or the large masses of men become unmanageable from their very size. With the exception of England there is not a country in Europe in which a military education is not diffused among the whole people, and unless we mean to rival England in the magnitude of our military blunders, we must take the necessary |