is very thorough, for Napoleon and Frederick the Great have said that military history is the school for the soldier who has had no experience in the field. Practical lectures are given in the field as to the occupation of positions, the establishment of outposts, the placing of troops, their marches, movements, and encampments.

In 1845 the Prussian minister of war reorganized the Military Academy of Berlin, the intention being to secure such an education for officers as should train them for service, both as citizens and soldiers, by blending more intimately moral and scientific with military studies; it being conceded that general enlargement and cultivation of the mind is as necessary to an officer as the acquisition of military discipline and habits.

These examples prove that a course of study may be pursued, giving its students both a scientific and a military education; and that it may be completed in four years. Such a school would be the head and crown of our common-school system, and would perfect a system of militia. During peace it would give us leaders in the arts of peace, and in war competent offi

cers.

The principle should be established that no one should receive a commission who has not passed an examination to prove himself competent. Candidates for commissions, having served their term of drill, and having from their commanding officers certificates of proficiency in the duty of the soldier, and being not more than twenty-five years of age, would present themselves yearly to a board of examiners. Those who pass this examination, and no others, would be competent to receive the commission of second lieutenant. In the Prussian service this examination includes-1st. Ordinance instruction, viz: on artillery of all kinds, small arms, gunpowder, and side-arms, including their fabrication and use. 2d. Organization of the army, elementary tactics, and service in the field. 3d. Field and permanent fortification. 4th. Surveying and military plan drawing. 5th. Composition of a military memoir, and knowledge of the regulations for the interior service and discipline of troops. If a candidate fail in one examination he may present himself at the next. From among these experts the captains and field-officers of each military district would fill vacancies by election. First lieutenants would be elected in the same

way from among the second lieutenants. Captains would be chosen from first lieutenants. For the commissions of fieldofficers a second examination should be required, at which all captains of two years' standing or more might present themselves, and vacancies could be filled only from among the successful aspirants.

The commissions of lieutenants and captains should expire by limitation at the end of five years, and two years' service in next lower grade should be a condition of promotion. Graduates of the military school would receive the commission of second lieutenant, and all officers of engineers and artillery must be graduates of that school.

The services of these officers would be voluntary. Their active duties would fill the summer vacation of each year. Punctuality in the performance of duty would be secured by public expression of merit or demerit, and dismissal from the service would be a penalty of such severity as to insure great pains to avoid it. In case of war, officers holding commissions in the militia should have a claim to a similar rank in the volunteer service.

By such a system an effective corps of educated officers would be kept up without expense in time of peace, and in time of war the skeleton of an army would exist, needing only those supplies which a patriotic people, trained to the use of arms, would promptly furnish. But everything would depend upon maintaining the standard of the examinations at a very high point. If they were rigorously maintained, the commission of a Massachusetts officer would be a diploma of character, intelligence, and ability, which would help a man on in life.

The cost of such a military system would consist chiefly in the expenses of the camps of instruction, of the military school, and of the material for an army of 30,000 men. The State would furnish tents, great-coats, ammunition, &c. The United States government would, no doubt, supply muskets, cannon, and the more necessary accoutrements. Each recruit would provide himself with blankets, knife, fork, spoon, and cup, and with a simple uniform. Only the cap and frock-coat, or tunic, would be according to regulation pattern, with pantaloons of any dark material, and serviceable boots or shoes. A tunic would be easily devised, like those for the English rifle corps, well

adapted both for ordinary wear and for drill. It would cost a recruit no more to provide himself during the three years of instruction with coat and cap of a regulation pattern than to buy those of another cut.

The expenses of the camps would consist in the rent or purchase of the land used for them, in the rations and forage to be supplied, and in the hire of horses for artillery and transportation. Estimating the cost of rations at $1.00 per week, the rations for 30,000 men for six weeks would cost $180,000. An appropriation of $60,000 a year would defray the whole current expense of the military school. The more nearly its advantages were placed within the reach of every young man of ability the more truly democratic it would be. $350,000 a year would probably cover the expense of the whole system, but a well managed system would be cheap at half a million. When a war costs two millions of dollars per day it is an important economy to shorten it six or eight months by being ready at the start.

But apart from economical considerations it ought to be considered whether anything would more tend to raise the tone of the New England character than an infusion of the military spirit throughout the people. If we have a fault, our enemies say that it lies in an undue love of money, and a dull sense of personal honor. Whether the charge be just or not we need not decide, but it must be admitted that the character of the true soldier is a noble type of manhood, and the more perfect and numerous specimens of that character we possess the better it will be for the honor and welfare of the old Bay State.

*This expense may be much reduced without impairing the efficiency of the system. The object to be reached, so far as the men are concerned, is that every one should be thoroughly drilled in the United States tactics. The system of a battalion drill may be as distinctly carried out by a small body of one or two hundred men as by a full regiment. The moment a motive was supplied, volunteer companies and drill clubs formed in every neighborhood would perfect themselves. It would be easily ascertained by inspecting officers whether the drill was well learned or not. Those who were well drilled out of the camps need not be drilled in them. But there are many things incident to collecting and moving large bodies of men which neither men nor officers can learn without trial, and encampments of two weeks would be necessary for this purpose.

If the time of young men from 18 to 21 is too valuable, there may be no objection to admitting them to the camps at 15. Some of the hardest fighting in history has been done by youths from 16 to 18. The King's household, at the battle of Steinkirk, in 1692,"consisted of boys of 18." Garibaldi's "adolescenti" were youths of 16 and 17 years of age, and even younger. It was found in the campaign of Lombardy in 1859, and in Sicily and Naples in 1860, that they often fought better than older troops.

RICHARD H. DANA, JR.
On the Judiciary,

IN THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF MASSACHUSETTS.

JULY, 1853.