PART II. MILITARY SYSTEM AND SCHOOLS IN PRUSSIA. (continued 2)

Out of this number, however, the sixty who do best are retained, and reserved to receive in the special military class of the Cadet School the instruction which the others are to seek in the Division Schools. These remain another year in the Cadet House, and undergo at its close, before leaving the Cadet House, their officers’ examination before the Supreme Board. The thirty best are once more selected, and receive immediate promotion. Their patents are signed and they join their regiments at once as second-lieutenants. The other thirty, if they have satisfied the examiners, receive a certificate of qualification, and enter with the rank of Portepée-fähnrich, and with, the prospect of receiving commissions without further examination, as soon as vacancies occur. Any one who fails to pass his examination must enter, if at all, simply with the rank of Portepée-fähnrich, and has to qualify himself in the Division Schools for attempting a second time the examination for the officer’s patent.

Such is the system as recently modified. Till quite lately only thirty were promoted from the Prima to the Selecta, and these thirty, unless they failed wholly, obtained immediate commissions at the end of the year. It has been found desirable to introduce the stimulus of competition, to offer a definite reward in the way of superior advantages to the best students, and to make it obviously worth a young man’s while to exert himself, and to be thoroughly diligent during this final year in the Selecta at the Cadet School.

Young men who, after passing the examination in the Prima, desire to enter the artillery and engineers, follow the usual course leading to the Artillery and Engineers’ School. They enter an artillery regiment, or a division of the engineers; they serve for nine months, they enter the special school, they are eligible after the first quarter to the grade of Portepée-fähnrich, and at the close of their first year are examined for their lieutenant’s commission. Those who remain in the Selecta have the great advantage of passing from the Cadet School immediately into the Artillery and Engineers’ School as lieutenants, and commence their course there accordingly at the beginning of the second of the three years. As, however, the school-year closes at the end of April, in the Cadet Houses, and begins in the Artillery and Engineers’ School on the 1st of October, these select cadets also pass five months with their regiment in actual service before recommencing their studies.

The average number who pass in this manner into the Artillery and Engineers’ School is stated by the authorities of the Cadet House to be three annually from the Selecta, and six or eight from the Prima.

It can hardly have escaped observation, that the studies pursued as a qualification for entering the army are, with the exception of the Selecta, almost entirely non-professional, even here in this part of the general system, which is in other respects most military in its character; and the tendency seems to be to carry out to a still greater extent the theory of continuing to as late an age as possible a good general education. There is evidently a general desire in Prussia, to take the officers of the standing army exclusively from the well-educated or the higher classes.

In the arrangements for the lessons, the very temperate or even timid use of the stimulus of competition deserves to be noticed. It appears, however, to have been lately employed with advantage in the highest class. At the same time, the provision made for giving really good instruction, and for placing all the boys in close relation with their teachers, can not but excite admiration. The small numbers of which the classes consist, and the care which seems to be taken in providing good teachers, both deserve attention.

The domestic arrangements, without being remarkable for the scrupulous cleanliness or the magnitude of the new institutions in Austria, certainly in some respects are more in accordance with English feelings. The greater privacy afforded by the use of rooms where few live together, is certainly more analogous to what has been found most desirable for English boys in large English schools, though most likely the contrary system is not less well-adapted to the national character in France and in Austria.

2. The Division Schools.

There are nine Division Schools for the whole army, one for each army corps, and they are placed at the following towns:—

Potsdam, Königsberg, Stettin, Frankfort on the Oder, Erfurt, Glogan, Neisse, Münster, and Trèves.

Here the young aspirant finds himself with nine or ten companions and a body of teachers amounting to about half that number, appointed by the commanding officer of the army corps, and differing considerably in different districts in their talents and ideas of education. They are often, though not always, selected from officers who have been at the Staff School, and afterwards at the Topographical Bureau. Their additional pay for teaching is uncertain; it depends upon the surplus remaining after the expenses of the household, and the money paid in purchasing books, instruments, &c., is deducted from the yearly allowance made to the school by the government. At best it is not high. It is calculated by the number of lectures, and at the most amounts to something more than 4l. 10s. (30 thalers) for the lectures on a single subject, given, it must be remembered, during the course of little more than six months in the year. The highest pay given in the Potsdam School to any one professor amounted to something more than 15 l. (100 thalers) yearly for lectures on three subjects, averaging ten or twelve lectures weekly for about six months. This must be estimated by a Prussian, not an English standard, being nearly equivalent to five-twelfths of the annual pay of a second lieutenant in that service. Still the sum is very low; and this, with some other obvious deficiencies, injures the working of the schools.

The young candidate for a commission begins a course of Tactics, Fortification, theory of Drawing and Surveying, Military Literature, Artillery, &c., Military Essays, and Drawing of Plans, which must be finished at the school in nine months, although it may be continued longer in private if the candidate is not prepared to pass his examination. As long as it lasts, twenty-three hours a week are devoted to study, besides the time occupied by questions, which the teachers are required to set from time to time, in order to keep up the pupil’s previous knowledge of French and Mathematics. The course is divided into the purely theoretical and practical divisions, the first of six and a half months, the latter of two and a half. We have already given a very full account of the studies in p. 188.

The arrangement of studies is systematic, and the number of hours devoted each week to lectures on the various subjects of study and to gymnastic riding and fencing, is as follows:

WEEKLY:

Hours.

Fortification, 4

Artillery, &c., 3

Tactics, 4

Military Surveying (theoretically,) 4

Military Literature, 2

Instruction on Military Duties, 1

Plan Drawing, 5

Gymnastics, 2

Riding, 2

Fencing, 2

Total, 29

The subjoined plan gives the exact employment of time for each day during the week :—

PLAN OF LECTURES AT THE DIVISION SCHOOL IN POTSDAM, 1855-6.

Hours. Monday. Tuesday. Wednesday. Thursday Friday. Saturday.

8– 9 9–10 Fortification. Military Literature. Tactics. Fortification. Artillery Tactics.

10–11 Instruction on Military duties. Artillery, &c. Plan drawing. Military Surveying (theoretically.) Plan drawing. Military Surveying (theoretically.)

11–12 Plan drawing.

12– 1

12½–2½ Gymnastics. Riding. Fencing.

Dinner time, 3 o’clock. Time for studying, from 6 till 8 o’clock, or from 7 till 9 o’clock every evening.

The lecturer has to draw up what is called the thread of the lecture (leitfaden,) a sort of programme containing its leading heads, intended to assist the memory of the pupils in giving a full account of it afterwards; and the contents of the different lectures on Tactics, Arms and Munitions, Fortifications, &c., are written out very minutely by the students. Ten pages of close print are devoted to these programmes in Helldorf; and the translation already given (pp. 188-194) will show that the list of military subjects adverted to is considerable.

At the end of the nine months spent at the Division School, the “Officier Aspiranten” go to Berlin for the examination for their commission. If they can not pass this, they return to study by themselves for their second trial. Unless by special permission from the King, they can not try more than twice.

The examination is conducted by the Supreme Commission for Examinations at Berlin, and has been already described.

The Division Schools were founded at the end of the great War. Their germ appears in Scharnhorst’s general order in 1810, which, among other things, instituted three War Schools for the candidate for commissions (Portepée-fähnriche.) These three War Schools seem to have been changed into the Division Schools in 1813 and 1816. At first, indeed, they were much more numerous than at present, as their name implies, there being two Divisions to each Army-Corps. There are now, as we have mentioned, nine; and Corps School or Army-Corps School would be the more correct designation.

Their importance as the institutions for special military instruction to all “Officier-Aspiranten” of the army led us to inquire carefully with regard to their efficiency, and in particular from two distinguished officers, on whose judgment and scientific experience great reliance might be placed. One of these, it may be added, possessed constant means of knowing all the details respecting them.

I. Formerly, it appears, it was not possible to limit these schools to their true object, purely military instruction. This was the special object of their creation; but owing to the defective general education which candidates often brought with them into the army, the Division Schools were too much used as a means of meeting this deficiency.

II. The opinions we obtained were certainly not favorable with regard to the present efficiency of these schools. It seemed to be agreed, that from various reasons, the military education given was susceptible of much improvement; that some of the Division Schools were really defective in teaching, whilst none could be pointed to as strikingly good. But it was also admitted that these blemishes arose from remediable defects in the working of the schools; that their principle was in itself sound, and capable of being carried out more perfectly, and excellently adapted to the object of giving some military instruction to all desirous of becoming officers of the infantry and cavalry.

III. The causes assigned for the present defects in the efficiency of the Division Schools were chiefly the following:—

(a.) That they were far too numerous.

Educated and scientific as Prussia may be called, it is not found practicable to supply nine army schools with exactly the sort of men fitted for the work of education. The pay, it must be added, is insufficient to attract many, and thus (as we were informed,) although many officers of intelligence are sometimes not unwilling to leave the life of drill for the life of education for a year or two, few do so with the serious purpose of doing it well. Neither the position nor the emoluments tempt them to make it a profession. Officers in command of the district have made the appointments, and often have “good-naturedly,” as it was said, appointed unfit persons, known as studious men.

(b.) The small number of pupils in each school was also spoken of as a very great disadvantage, as doing away with all emulation amongst themselves.

(c.) The independence which each school has enjoyed, and the want of any central body to watch its working and regulate its system, is also said to have had bad results. The teaching has been far from uniform,—in one school energetic, in another lax; in one school the most important subjects taught, in another, a little of everything; in a third, some special crotchet of a teacher. This has acted badly on the examinations, since it was thought hard to reject an “aspirant” who had done parts of his work well, and had been evidently ill taught or superficially instructed in others.

The remedies suggested were,—

(1.) Considerably to diminish the number of these schools. This, we were told, was about to be done by reducing them from nine to three. Such a course would obviously tend to remedy two of the evils complained of. It would give a larger choice of teachers, and afford more liberal means of remunerating them, and a larger attendance and competition of pupils.

(2.) To place the schools under the more direct regulation and management of the Central Educational Department at Berlin. This step would improve their teaching by subjecting it to constant inspection and reports. It would insure uniformity in the system of instruction and subjects of study; and, when combined with the presence of able teachers, it would enable the Board of Examiners at Berlin to pursue a more strict and unvarying course in rejecting ill-qualified candidates. By these means the teaching in the school would probably become more definite and higher.

One other point was mentioned to us as doubtful. It was thought that the time for attending the Division School came too soon after a young man’s entrance into the army, when he had but recently obtained his liberty, and was likely to be much more unwilling to be sent to school again than might have been the case a year or two later. General von Willisen, who urged this objection to us, was consequently for deferring the attendance at the Division Schools several years in an officer’s life.

We should add, however, that as in Prussia a young Officier-aspirant is still partly a private soldier, we were told that many were glad to exchange the severity of regimental discipline for the Division School.

3. The United Artillery and Engineers’ School at Berlin.

Young men desirous of obtaining commissions in the Artillery or Engineers follow the course which has already been described. They join either with a nomination from a colonel of artillery or engineers, or as scholars from the Cadet House. They submit themselves for examination for the grade of Ensign (Portepée-fähnrich); they serve their time with the troops, they go through a course of professional study, and are examined in it for their officer’s commission by the Board at Berlin. If they come from the highest class, the Selecta of the Cadet House, they have the privilege of joining the corps with the rank of officer.

In these respects the system is the same for them as for the Aspiranten in the other arms of the service.

The distinctions are, that first, in the preliminary or Ensign’s Examination, a somewhat greater acquaintance with mathematics is required from them; secondly, that they prepare for the Officer’s Examination, and follow their professional studies, not in the Division Schools, but in a separate Special Arm School at Berlin. Moreover, nine months’ service with the troops, instead of six, is required before they can enter the Special Arm School. They enter it also with the rank only of corporal, and are not eligible to the grade of Swordknot Ensign until they have passed three months at least in the school.

Their Officer’s Examination before the Supreme Board at Berlin takes place after nine months more, at the end of the first year at the school, and after passing they are eligible to the rank of officer.

When a vacancy occurs their claim to an actual commission is considered, and the usual formalities are fulfilled. Their names are submitted for approval to the officers of the corps, and with that approbation laid before the King; and they thus in due time obtain their rank as Sub-Lieutenants respectively of Artillery or of Engineers.

This rank, however, is provisional, and their position is that of supernumeraries. Their education as officers may be complete, but their education as officers of Artillery or of Engineers has scarcely in fact commenced. They have before them a third examination, that of the Special Arm, their Vocation-trial or Berufs-prüfung. Or, more correctly speaking, they have not one but two to pass, for the third examination is divided into two stages, one to be passed at the end of each of the two years which yet remain of the course. It is only when these are completed, after a three years’ stay, that the young man is finally allowed to join his corps as a second-lieutenant.

Failure in the officers’ examination at the close of the first year is attended with the penalty of returning to the corps and resuming service in the ranks with the troops. Whether or not the rejected student may be permitted to return after an interval to join again the classes of the first year, or after passing, upon a second trial, the officers’ examination, to enter the classes of the second year, will depend upon the extent of his failure.

Failure in the examination at the close of the second year is similarly visited with the punishment of return to the corps. As they have already passed the officers’ examination, they may endeavor to effect a transfer to a regiment of the line; or, under certain circumstances, they may be permitted to study privately in preparation for the third year’s course, and may offer themselves for a second trial.

If a student fails in his last examination at the close of the third year, he may be allowed, in like manner, under favorable circumstances, to re-enter the third year’s classes, and try to qualify himself by an additional year of study, losing, of course, his seniority. Otherwise, he joins the corps as a supernumerary, with the pay of an infantry officer, and waits till he can obtain a commission in the line.

Candidates for commissions in the engineers enter the corps, it should be observed, originally as volunteers, finding their own clothing, and receiving no pay; but as soon as they enter the school they are regularly paid by the state, and receive their pay in the usual course of the service from the division to which they belong.

The studies of the three years are arranged in accordance with the system that has just been described. Those of the first year are common to the two arms, and correspond, in a general way, with what is taught in the Division Schools or in the highest class of the Cadet House. Those of the second year are devoted to the special arm subjects. In Mathematics, Artillery, and Fortification, the lectures are common to the artillery and engineers; in drawing they are divided.

In the third year a considerable separation takes place. Mathematics are still taught, and there is a special class of the most advanced students in the Differential and Integral Calculus, the Higher Geometry, and in Analytical Mechanics and Hydraulics; this, however, is purposely restricted to about one-third of the class, by raising the requirements, if necessary.

The course is divided in each year into the theoretical and the practical part. The year commences in October with the former, and the studies for the nine months succeeding are for the most part theoretical only. In June the examinations take place. July, August, and a part of September are given up to practical exercises. Something like the last three weeks of September are allowed for a vacation.

The general control of the school is in the hands of the General Inspectors of the two services, the artillery and the engineers. These two are the Curators of the school and form the Curatorium. They make their reports to the General Inspector of Military Education, of whom mention has already been made. The immediate management is intrusted to a director, who is a field officer of artillery or engineers, of the rank of commandant of a regiment, and he has a captain, appointed by the Curatorium as his assistant.

There is a Board of Studies, of which the Director is chairman, consisting of the Senior Professor of Mathematics, of the Instructors of Artillery and Engineering in the third Cœtus, and of an equal number of officers of the two services named by the Curators.

Four officers, three from the artillery and one from the engineers, acting under the captain, are charged with the care of discipline and order; these are the Direction Officers.

There are twelve military and eleven civilian professors and teachers. Among the military professors and teachers may be included any of the direction officers.

The examinations of the first year are conducted by the usual Board, the Supreme Military Examinations Board; but for those of the second and of the third year, there is a separate board, chosen from the two services by the Curators, and otherwise unconnected with the School.

The numbers in the school vary from 216 to 240. In time of peace about five are yearly admitted for each regiment of artillery, and two or three for each division of engineers. The great majority have entered the army from the usual places of civil education, a few from the Prima of the Cadet House, on the same terms as the others, and a small number, who are usually among the best pupils in the school, from the Selecta, who come as officers, and after a short service with the troops, enter the second year’s classes, provided there is room, preference being always allowed to the students already belonging to the school, who have succeeded in passing the examination of the first year.

The Artillery and Engineers’ School buildings stand in Berlin itself, in the principal street, Unter den Linden, No. 74, near the Brandenburg Gate. They bear the following inscription: Artillerie und Ingenieur Schule. Stiftung Friedrich Wilhelms III. M.DCCC.XXII.

On the occasion of our visit to the school, we were allowed by the kindness of the authorities to be present at some of the lectures. The students of the second year were attending the course on the History of the Art of War, and the immediate subject was an account of and criticism on the battle of Blenheim. The young men, about forty-five in number, were ranged in desks facing the Professor, but not in the manner of an amphitheater. The lecture was interesting, animated, and generally instructive; it was perfectly professorial in character, and the young men took notes. A class of the students of the first year, thirty-five in number, were engaged in topographical drawing. The artillery division of the third year students were in another room, listening to and busily taking notes upon a lecture (also professorial) on the construction of gun-carriages: the number was about forty-five.

Only the students of the first year are lodged in the building; and owing to the unusually large number lately admitted, an adjoining house has been taken to afford additional room. The accommodation in general is rather limited. Two stories in the upper part of the building are occupied by the somewhat scantily furnished chambers; there appeared in some cases to be two young men in one room, in other cases four, or as many as six or seven to a bedroom and sitting-room. The students who lodge in the building dine together in a mess-room; and there is a billiard-room, with coffee-rooms adjoining it, for the general use, looking out from the ground floor front into the Unter den Linden. There is a library, a small laboratory attached to the lecture-room employed for the subjects of Chemistry and Natural Philosophy, and a small collection of apparatus required for illustration on the latter subject.

On quitting the school, the engineer students, as soon as they obtain their commissions, are employed for three years with a Division of Engineers; then for three years in a fortress to superintend buildings; and then again with a Division of Engineers. They are then eligible to promotion as first-lieutenants.

The artillery students, in like manner, join and serve with their regiments.

Promotion in the artillery is by regiments, in the engineers it is general throughout the whole corps.

We should not omit to call attention to the fact, that the only instance which has come to our knowledge of the promotion of officers in their own arm of the service, being made contingent on their passing an examination, is to be found in the Prussian Artillery and Engineers. First-Lieutenants belonging to those corps must pass an examination before they can be promoted to the rank of captain. This regulation does not exist for any other part of the Prussian service, and it is considered a great grievance by the officers of those corps, as it may be exacted at the age of forty, from the most highly educated officers of the Prussian army.

The pay of subaltern of engineers is somewhat higher than that of the artillery, infantry, and cavalry. Above the rank of subaltern, the pay of the artillery, cavalry, and engineers, is on an equality, but superior to that of the infantry. The engineers have, moreover, a prospect of employment of a civil nature when they return from active service; to lucrative positions of this kind they are not unfrequently appointed.

It should be mentioned before quitting the subject, that all the officers of the artillery and engineers are bound, in consideration of three years’ maintenance in the school, to serve a period of six years, before they can exercise the usual privilege allowed to Prussian officers of withdrawing from the service.

[A particular account of the Course of Instruction in this School will be given in a separate article under the title of the Institution.]

VI. SCHOOL FOR STAFF OFFICERS AT BERLIN.

The War School (Kriegs-Schule) in Berlin has undergone many changes since its foundation in the time of Frederick the Great. It is now the Staff School of Prussia, i.e., the only, or almost the only, means of obtaining a staff appointment is by passing through it, and the education given is particularly intended to form staff officers. Its plan and methods of teaching differ, indeed, from the very commencement from the French Staff School, and bear much more resemblance to the senior department at Sandhurst, with the exception that the senior department is not at present a necessary means towards a staff appointment.

Thus the Kriegs-Schule does not take young men of twenty-one or twenty-two and educate them (like the French Staff School) for the staff and the staff alone. Its pupils are men of twenty-five or twenty-six, officers of three years’ standing, or five years’ service since their first entering the army. At this comparatively ripe age they become candidates for entrance to the Staff School, and, if admitted, they spend there three years of laborious study, with no very brilliant prospects to crown it, as only a very small number obtain what may be called the lowest prize, admission to the Topographical Department; and out of these only two or three yearly of the most distinguished pupils gain the Staff. The rest return to their regiments, and are employed as adjutants or as teachers in the Division Schools.

The process of entrance is as follows:—An officer of three years’ standing desires to go to the Staff School. Any one may send in his name as a candidate for the entrance examination to the minister of war, having obtained a certificate from his superior officer that he understands his regular duty, has no debts, and is capable, both as regards his abilities and bodily strength, of making a good staff officer. Little difficulty is made about admission to become a candidate, nor is there any regulation to limit the number from any one corps or regiment, so that there may be often found in the Staff School more in proportion from the infantry than the cavalry, and vice versâ. Some regiments, we heard, hardly ever send officers to the school. Practically, indeed, the regulation requiring three years of active service bears hard upon the artillery and engineers in comparison with the other services; for, as the officers of these two corps only enter their own school after they have been near a year in the service, and spend three years there, they must have been in the army nearly seven years before they can enter the Staff School.

The candidate for the Staff School is examined in the capital of the province in which his corps is stationed. The examination is early in April, and it is held at the provincial town instead of Berlin, in order to diminish expense. But the questions are sent from the board of examiners in Berlin, and the same are given in the different provincial towns at one and the same time. The examination is much on the same subjects, and requires about the same actual knowledge as that which was passed at least three years before for a lieutenancy, but owing to the difference of age, the questions are put and are expected to be answered in a much more scientific form than on the first occasion. Thus, we were told, such an essay as “Give an account of the wars of Francis I. and Charles V.,” would at the Kriegs-Schule Examination rather be stated thus: “What was the influence of these wars on the policy and religion of Europe?”

The examination is entirely upon paper; it occupies from ten to twelve days of about five hours daily, the superintending staff officer in the province presiding over it. But his business is limited to reading out the questions sent to him, and taking care that no books are brought in, or any improper means used. The answers to the questions have to go through a double ordeal, the military ones being first examined by some of the staff of the general commanding in the province, and afterwards by the commission of examiners at Berlin. The final decision rests with the chief of the Prussian staff, who recommends the successful officers to the minister of war.

There is an average of sixty or seventy candidates yearly. Only forty of these can be taken. If some additional case seems meritorious, the officer may obtain a promise of appointment, but his entrance is deferred. It is not uncommon to try more than once.

The entrance examination passed, the school opens on the 1st of October, to continue its lectures, with a fortnight’s break at Christmas and at Easter, till the first of June. It has its 120 pupils, divided into their three classes, one for each year, working (with only little of practical work) under professors, military for the lectures of a military, and civil for those of a non-military character. No difficulty, we understood, is found here, as we had heard to be the case at St. Cyr, in enforcing the fullest attention to the lectures of the civilian professors; each is respected according to his knowledge of the subject, and it would be thought as absurd for a military professor to undertake a non-professional subject, as vice versâ.

The method of working is that so commonly followed in the Prussian universities of listening to numerous lectures, and taking copious notes upon them. Nearly five hours daily, from eight in the morning till one, are often continuously occupied in this manner; for although only twenty hours of attendance are absolutely exacted weekly (an amount which to our own students would seem more than ample) ten more are said to be necessary to enable an officer to do any justice to the various subjects of which he is expected to show some knowledge at his examinations.

These lectures are usually read aloud; there is no questioning and answering. The student, after five morning hours, must spend at least five or six more in copying them out, or in writing an essay on the subject of some of the lectures. Of these one is given about every three weeks, but only on military subjects. They are carefully corrected and sent back to the student with the notes of his teacher, and their merit influences the final estimate of his whole work.

Besides this daily work, the examinations are at once a stimulus and a means of testing proficiency. These occur every three months, but the yearly ones are the most important. They are entirely upon paper. In the quarterly ones the papers are only given for two hours at a time daily, and take the place of two common lectures; in the other examinations they are daily for four or five hours. They are entirely essays upon the numerous subjects lectured on in the school, History of War, Philosophy, Tactics, &c.

Perhaps there is no better way of giving an idea of the mode of studying than by a statement of some of the subjects of these essays. They have been supplied to us by the kindness of Lieutenant Berger, of the 28th Infantry, from whom we have received much valuable information on the subject.

General Essays.

On Tactics:—I. A Prussian Division, added to which is,—

1 Regiment of Infantry,

1 twelve pounder Battery,

1 Cavalry Regiment,

is in retreat from Goldberg to Jauer (in Silesia.) The enemy is following. A position is to be taken up to stop his advance, whatever his numbers may be.

A map of the position being given:—

(a.) Describe the position.

(b.) Draw up the troops.

(c.) Write an explanatory criticism.

(To be worked at home in two days.)

Three Corps d’Armée march against Berlin from different points. The army in Berlin is ordered to meet them. (To be done in five hours.)

Permanent Fortification. For what purpose are the fortifications in the main ditch intended, and how are they to be constructed? (Five hours.)

Military Geography. The Saxon land between the Elbe and Saale, and its influence upon the operations of war in North and South Germany. (Five hours.)

Criticism on the organization of the French Battalion. (At home in one day.)

Examination Essays, Staff School.—Military History, Tactics and Administration.

1. In what respects did the earlier form of military art, strategetically and tactically, favor defensive wars generally, and in particular assist Frederick II. in the Seven Years’ War? (Two hours.)

2. The duties of the Staff in time of peace. (Two hours.)

3. Position of Landwehr Officers on and off duty. (Two hours.)

4. What is the value of the Cavalry formation en échelon, with particular reference to the Austrian mode? (Two hours.)

5. Is only one sort of Infantry necessary, or is Light Infantry essential? (Two hours.)

6. How may the mobilizing of an Army be best expedited? (Five hours.)

7. Describe the different sorts of field works particularly used in war. (Two hours.)

8. How is the Artillery of a Corps d’Armée to be used in the different emergencies of battle? (Five hours.)

Literary and Scientific.

1. The Geological characteristics of the country between the Carpathian Mountains and the Vistula on one side, and the Yaldai Mountains and the Dnieper on the other. (Two hours.)

2. By what political conjunctures was the power and influence of England peculiarly advanced in the 18th century? (Five hours.)

3. On the magnetic effects of the electric stream. (Two hours.)

4. Characteristics of Greek literature, and its chief authors in the time of the Peloponnesian War. (Two hours.)

The knowledge required is seen in the account of the Staff School, (p. 395) and in the list of the Lectures given above. Besides military subjects, it includes a very full course of Ancient and Modern History, an addition to the History of War (which last alone occupies seven hours weekly for the last year,) a good deal of Logic and Philosophy of Art and Literature, and of Political Economy. Some of these lectures have probably been introduced from the school, having a double object, that of giving a diplomatic as well as a military education. This was the original idea of Frederick the Great, who, in all his plans of military teaching, laid a great stress on the general literature which he himself valued so highly. This diffusive study is a strong contrast to the principle of “little, but well,” and to the constant practical exercises in the laboratories insisted on by the early teachers of the Polytechnic School in France.

The following is the plan of the lectures for the three years. Twenty lectures a week are the minimum:—

Course of First Year.

Obligatory

Tactics, 4 hours.

Artillery, 3 “

Field Fortification, 2 “

Military and Political Administration and Economy, 2 “

Mathematics, Pure and Mixed, 6 “

17 hours.

For Choice

Universal History, 4 hours.

Universal Geography, 3 “

Physical Geography, 4 “

10 hours.

Total, 27 hours.

Numbers printed as shown.

Course of Second Year

Obligatory

Tactics, 4 hours.

Permanent Fortification, 2 “

Special Geography and Geology, 4 “

10 hours.

For Choice

Universal History, 4 hours.

Mathematics, 6 “

Logic, 4 “

Physics, 4 “

Lectures on Horses, 2 “

20 hours.

Total, 30 hours.

Course of Third Year.

Obligatory

History of War, 7 hours.

Staff Duty, 3 “

Art of Sieges, 2 “

Military Jurisprudence, 1 “

13 hours.

For Choice

General History of Literature, 4 hours.

Mathematics, 6 “

Higher Geodesy, 3 “

Chemistry, 4 “

17 hours.

Total, 30 hours.8

It will be seen that the above course is entirely theoretical; no practical work (as in France) relieves the sedentary labor of ten hours daily for more than eight months of the year. But as soon as the first year’s course is ended, all the officers who are supposed to know drawing before coming to the school, are sent into the country for three weeks to practice military drawing and surveying; and those of the third year go through (also for the same period) a similar course of staff duty. These last are sent under the direction of the officer who is Professor of Staff Duty at the School; each student officer gets his separate orders, and they meet and are told off every morning for their day’s work, reconnoitering fortresses, surveying the frontiers between Austria and Prussia, &c., &c. During the remaining three summer months the students are sent in successive classes to those arms of the service which are not their own, and after the usual military exercises are completed they must bring back with them a certificate of proficiency from the commanding officer. This amount of time was spoken of as being too little.

If we are surprised at not finding a greater amount of practical work included amongst the labors of the school, we must remember that it is chiefly postponed to a later period of the officer’s career, when the probability of his being required to use it on the staff is greater. This is when he has gained his place in the Topographical Department, and is working there upon trial to test his fitness for the actual staff. He is then employed during winter in working on the Theory of War, and during summer in military surveying and drawing.

Such is the method and extent of the officer’s work at the Staff School; a few more words are needed on the character of his examinations, which here as everywhere else must greatly influence the character of the work.

There are no less than nine examinations during the three years, one for every three months, but the final one at the end of each year is the more important, as a sort of summing up of the year’s work. In marking for this the merit of the essays done at home is taken into account. The result in each branch of work and on every examination is entered by the several professors in a book kept at the directory, and the pupils have a right to inspect the report of their own work. The net result of his own three years’ work is also sent to the officer after leaving the school through the authorities of his regiment. The certificate of this contains the criticism on each branch of his work in detail.

The subjects given for essays will show the nature of the chief examinations (i.e. those at the end of each year;) four or five hours is the time generally allowed to a difficult subject, the examination stretching over a number of days, in proportion to the subjects taken up. The pupil may bring in his notes of lectures, on which extraordinary care is bestowed, and which must contain everything that can be said on the subject. Much value is said to be attached to the rapidity with which an essay is worked, as showing a quality valuable in an officer. There is, as we have observed, no vivâ voce of any kind in this School. Some competition exists in the Staff School, (and it is almost the only Prussian school where we find it,) for the knowledge that only eight or ten out of the forty pupils can obtain the Topographical Department, and only two out of these eight or ten, the staff, acts as a competitive stimulus. We must add, however, that although a minute account of the positive merits of the pupils is drawn up and sent to them at the end of their career, they have no means of ascertaining their relative positions; and this may always leave room for doubt, whether the places in the Typographical Department and on the Staff are strictly given by merit, or whether patronage does not here step in. Another ambiguity may be remarked in the fact that the relative importance of the subjects of study is not known. It may of course be surmised, that a knowledge of the Peloponnesian War is not marked so highly as that of the Seven Years’ War; but any indefiniteness as to what is or what is not important, will generally lead to an attempt to know something of all the subjects mentioned, and it would undoubtedly be better to affix its definite value to every subject. It would prevent what seem to us valid objections to the present system of the Staff School, the attempt to crowd in too many subjects, instead of mastering thoroughly a few.

The final examination having been completed in June, the student goes through the three weeks of staff duty we have described, and finishes his last three summer months in that branch of the army in which he has not yet served. He then returns to his regiment, where he receives the certificate of his three years’ work. But no list is published of the order of merit in which the officers stand. If the certificate is satisfactory, he forwards it to the Chief of the Prussian Staff, with a request to be employed in the Topographical Department of the Staff. If this is granted, he receives an order to join it in about two years, i.e. about nine or ten years after first entering the service.

About eight officers are yearly sent to the Topographical Department, and serve there for two or three years, surveying and drawing in summer, working at military science in the winter. The correction of the Topographical Map of Prussia is in their hands. Finally, two out of these are selected for the Staff; the remainder return to their regiments, to become adjutants or to teach in the Division Schools.

The most immediate advantage of being in the staff corps is promotion to a captaincy at any age, which, considering the extreme slowness of promotion in Prussia, may be termed an early one. This is generally gained within two or three years after joining the corps, i.e. at thirty-three or thirty-four. In other corps hardly any one has a chance of becoming captain till after forty.

We may add, that the number of officers in the Topographical Department is about forty, on the staff itself sixty-four. No one belonging to the staff is below the rank of captain, or above that of colonel. Every general of division has one officer of the staff attached to him, and two adjutants, the first nominated by the chief of the staff, the two last by the king, and these two belong rather to the officer than to the general. They are not removable with him. The adjutants are not officers of the staff, though they are often chosen from amongst those who have been at the Staff School. They are nominated by the king upon reports sent into him by the generals of division, and the appointment is not considered a great prize, as it implies neither extra pay, promotion, nor permanency; the adjutants are promoted in the usual course, and then, upon promotion, return to their regiments. The adjutants of battalions and regiments are appointed, like our own, by the officers commanding. The name of aide-de-camp does not exist in the Prussian service, but that of adjutant is used in its place.

VII. ELEMENTARY MILITARY SCHOOLS FOR NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS.

1. MILITARY ORPHAN-HOUSES.

There are three Military Orphan-Houses in Prussia for the children of soldiers, two for boys, one at Potsdam, and the other at Annaburg, and one for girls at Pretzch. Although intended for orphans, they receive children whose parents are too poor to provide for them. They receive a good elementary education and are brought up for trades, and can make their selection between a civil and a military career. The English Commissioners report that they found 800 pupils in the Orphan-House at Potsdam, of whom 200 were under the charge of female teachers; 520 were in the senior department, including thirty-six in the music class, who will go into the Regimental Bands, and about twenty who formed a separate military class, who would probably enter the Artillery School.

The School at Annaburg, and the subsidiary Girls’ School at Pretzsch, are both Protestant in character; no religious teaching is supplied for Roman Catholics. Roman Catholic boys are all sent to Potsdam, and Roman Catholic girls are provided for in ordinary schools, and in private families, and payment made on their behalf out of the funds of the institution.

Dr. Bache in his “Report on Education in Europe,” gives the following account of these institutions.

Military Orphan-House at Potsdam.

This institution was founded in 1724, by Frederick William the First of Prussia. The reputation of Franke’s Foundations induced this monarch to rival the benevolence of the clergyman, and to establish on a scale proportioned to his greater means, a house for the education of the orphans of his soldiers. While, however, the recipients of Franke’s bounty are free to choose their career in after life, and only so far bound to the institution, as a sense of gratitude may prompt, the youth who passes through the Military Orphan-house of Potsdam, must enter the military service for twelve years. Three of these, indeed, are the term of service of every citizen, and I believe the three years in the non-commissioned officers’ school are now counted as part of the twelve, and thus the actual number of extra years of service is reduced to six. The institution began with one hundred and seventy-nine children, both girls and boys being received; this arrangement continued until a few years since, when the girls’ school was removed from Potsdam, and the establishment at present is for male pupils only. There are between three and four hundred in the elementary or boys’ department. In the early history of the orphan-house two attempts are recorded to introduce manual labor, as a profitable speculation; neither of which appears, however, to have succeeded. The first of these, the manufacture of Brabant lace, was introduced in 1743, and after various modifications of the mode of applying the labor of the children, it was finally abandoned in 1795. In 1744, the culture of silk was introduced extensively throughout the kingdom, and especially enjoined at the orphan-houses; but this attempt was not more successful in the end than the other, and the culture is not kept up in this institution.

The present spacious buildings were chiefly constructed under the reign of the founder and of Frederick the Great. Additions have, however, been made from time to time since, and the whole plan is hardly yet completed. The institution may be considered as divided into three departments or schools; an elementary school, (called the Boys’ House, das Knabenhaus,) a trade school, and a music school. The buildings for the elementary school are erected about a spacious court, which serves as an exercising and play-ground. On the ground floor are the refectory, in which all the youth from the different schools composing the institution, meet three times a day, and the study and play-rooms, lavatory, &c. The study-rooms form a long range, and when the doors of communication are opened, one teacher can superintend the whole of the classes. The school-rooms are on the first and second floors, and are calculated for divisions of forty boys each. There are six dormitories, furnished with wooden or iron bedsteads, the latter having been more recently introduced and found to answer well. The bedding consists of a straw bed beneath, and a mattress of hair above. Each dormitory is superintended by a teacher, who sleeps at one end of it. There are also dwelling-rooms for the teachers, officers, &c., and in the court a very large wash-house, with a drying-room above it.

The buildings occupied by the trade and music schools are separated by a street from the others, and with the dwellings of the officers, a room for gymnastic exercises, and musical practice, and the workshops, form a second immense series of structures. The infirmary is near to them, and is under a separate direction; subordinate, however, to the general executive body. It is divided into rooms assigned to patients suffering from different complaints. A schoolmaster gives instruction to the convalescent. The arrangements in the dormitories of the trades’ school, are similar to those used in the army, and the Superintendence and discipline are strictly military.

The part of the building occupied by the music school, contains separate rooms for practicing by individuals, class-rooms, and dormitories. There are rooms in the main pile for the meetings of teachers, for a small library, &c.

The executive board of this school depends partly on the ministry of war, and partly on that of public instruction; the former, however, is the controlling authority. Under this board is the military superintendent, or director, to whom the chaplain, the secretaries, the economist, the military superintendent of the day, the teachers, commandants of companies, the inspectors of the trades’ and music school, and other officers, are directly responsible. The clergyman is the superintendent of the elementary school, and has a general charge of all the intellectual and religious instruction.

The orphan children of soldiers are received for maintenance, at any age, by the authorities of the establishment, but if under six years, are boarded with their friends or others until six, and then admitted into the house at Potsdam; they remain there until fourteen or fifteen years of age, and, if of sound constitution, are transferred to the trade, or to the music school, where they remain four years, and whence they pass, if their conduct has been good, to the school for non-commissioned officers. I have never seen a body of young men all so well physically developed as the pupils of the trade school, a result produced by constant attention to their education on this point. Children who are not healthy, or who have failed in the elementary school, are apprenticed at fourteen, and the institution ceases to have the charge of them.

In the Elementary School, the usual branches taught in the common schools of Prussia are pursued, including reading, writing, arithmetic, the German language, geography, drawing, religious instruction, and a little natural history. The boys are divided into four classes, according to their proficiency, and all the classes below the first are subdivided into two sections, each being under the charge of a teacher, and having a separate recitation room. These sections contain about forty pupils each. A monitor of order from among the pupils, has charge of a section on entering and leaving the school-room, and render such service as the master requires during the lesson; he is assisted by one of the class in the distribution of the books, slates, and other implements of instruction. The teachers keep each a roll, upon which the character of the recitation and conduct of the pupils is entered, and which is examined weekly by the chaplain, and submitted to the board of teachers at their meetings. No youth, who is below a certain grade upon this roll, is permitted to enter the trades’ school. There are about five hours of instruction on four days of the week, and about twenty-three in the whole week. The holidays are, a week at Easter, four days at Michaelmas, a fortnight in the latter half of July, and from the twenty-third of December, to the second of January. For those who have no friends to go to, the Christmas festivities are kept up in the school, as in the private families of the country.

The board of teachers meet once every fortnight, and the director, or his substitute, or the chaplain, presides. At their meetings, all matters relating to instruction and discipline are discussed.

The form of the discipline of the school is military, but a spirit of mildness tempers it, suiting it to the age of the pupils. The boys, in general, are divided into four companies, each of which has a commandant, (a non-commissioned officer of the highest grade,) who has charge of the instruction in military exercises, and ranks with the teachers of the school. These companies form a battalion, and are drilled without arms, and inspected by the director, or an officer appointed by him. In turn the commandants of companies, acting as officers of the day, have general charge of the military and police duties. Two of the teachers, also, in turn, act as inspectors of the day, and have the general superintendence of the pupils in study and recreation hours, in the duties of personal police, at meals, and in the dormitories, relieving each other at different parts of the day. They are co-ordinate in authority with the officer of the day, and he is expected to relieve and aid them in the maintenance of order. These officers report immediately to the director.

The four companies are subdivided into sections of eleven, over each of which one of the boys is placed, with the title of overseer, or corporal, and he is responsible for the good order of his section, and may be assisted in his duties by one chosen from it. From among these corporals one is selected for the general control and superintendence of the others, and marches the company to the lavatory, to meals, to the dormitory, &c., being responsible for them whenever they are collected as a company. The boys composing a section are placed at meals upon the same side of the table with the corporal who has charge of them. The younger pupils do not join these companies at once, but are kept together in a division which is under female superintendence, has a separate overseer, and is under different regulations as to rising, going to bed, and other particulars of discipline and police from the elder pupils.

All the duties of domestic and personal police, and some of those of domestic economy, are performed by the boys enrolled in the four companies. They clean their own shoes, brush their own clothes, attend to the police of the different parts of the building, serve the meals, and make their beds. That the various duties may be attended to in an orderly way, there are, besides those already spoken of, special overseers appointed among the pupils, who have general charge of them while engaged in certain duties, and of particular localities. Thus there is an overseer of the room where the clothes and shoes are kept, who has charge of the exchange of the Sunday for week day dress, and vice versa; an overseer of the room where the shoes are brushed and blacked; an overseer of the lavatory; four superintendents of cleanliness, who direct the pupils while washing and combing their hair; one of hair cutting; two of serving the table, who have charge of a detail of thirty pupils, who serve and clear the tables and clean the knives and forks; one, of the manual labor classes; one, of the sick in the hospital; one, of those who are unwell, and must report to the physician; one, of the lights; one, to prevent the passing of bounds; one the pupils who sing the liturgy in the church; one to conduct the pupils, whose shoes require repairs, to the shoemaker; besides, those for the classes and the younger boys, already mentioned, and a few others. I make this enumeration in order to show the minuteness of the arrangements for police and discipline, and the extent to which they are conducted by the pupils themselves. The selections for appointments are made by the teachers and officers, and submitted to the chaplain and director for their approbation. A part of the pupils employed as superintendents receive small pecuniary allowances, and all enjoy many privileges.

Some of the pupils, who are found to have a taste for music, receive special lessons, and are employed, when sufficiently proficient, to give the signals for the different duties of the day. Eight pupils are thus selected to be taught the bugle and fife, and twelve the drum.

In regard to conduct, the pupils are divided into four grades, according to the reports of the teachers and officers, a revision of the classification taking place every quarter, and the director having, in the meantime, the power to displace a pupil in a case of emergency. The first class grade is composed of pupils distinguished for unvarying good conduct, and on holidays its members are allowed to leave the orphan-house alone to make small purchases at discretion, and are neither subject to corporal punishment nor to the stoppage of their meals. The second class is composed also of meritorious pupils, but of a lower grade of conduct than the first; they are permitted to leave the school sometimes, but not so often as the others, and are generally under supervision. From these two grades only, the superintendents or overseers are taken. Pupils of the third grade stand between those who are decidedly good or bad, and are treated accordingly. They are the last who are permitted to pass from the elementary to the trades’ school, on completing their course in the former. Those of the fourth, or lowest grade, are kept constantly under supervision, have no allowances, no leaves of absence, are separated, when possible, from the rest of the pupils, and are even punished by an inferior diet.

The health of the pupils is promoted by frequent bodily exercise, and, when the weather permits, in the open air. Thus they have regular gymnastic exercises four times a week, are drilled by companies four times, and by battalion twice a week, take frequent walks, and in summer, bathe every day. The regular manual labor in this department of the school is confined to knitting and tailoring. The gymnastic exercises are conducted by two teachers, each taking charge of one of the companies, of which two attend the lesson at the same time, and assisted by pupils selected from among the most proficient in the exercises. There are two swimming lessons given to each company, in summer, every week. In the ordinary division of the day, in summer, between two and three hours are allowed for manual labor, the same for recreation, two hours for exercise, and nearly eight for sleep.

Their clothing is a neat uniform jacket of blue cloth, of a military fashion, gray or white pantaloons for the winter, and a brown linen jacket and white linen pantaloons for the summer, and their officers are distinguished by badges similar to those worn in service. The diet is generous, and, besides the three meals, bread is served as a luncheon in the morning and afternoon intervals.

An opportunity is given to those who are to pass into the trades’ school, to ascertain the trade which they may wish to follow, by a trial during the last year of the elementary course.

The order of the day, with merely slight variations during four days of the week, in summer, is as follows:—The pupils rise at a quarter before five o’clock, and proceed by companies to the lavatory, two companies occupying it at once and alternating, the other two being, meanwhile, engaged in cleaning their shoes. Wash and comb their hair. At half past five the boys detailed to serve the meals proceed to the refectory under their two superintendents. At a quarter before six the bugle sounds, and the companies assemble, by sections, in the court-yard. Morning prayers and breakfast. Those who are slightly sick report to the physician. At a quarter before seven, the boys assemble according to classes, and at seven are marched to the school-rooms. At a quarter before nine a luncheon of bread is served out to them. School closes at eleven, and the pupils are free for three-quarters of an hour. Dinner at about a quarter before twelve. The pupils brush their clothes, and are inspected by the officer of the day. From a quarter past one to half-past two, review the morning lessons in school. From a quarter to three until five, are occupied with manual labor in the work-rooms. Part of the pupils receive instruction in music, and the first and second classes in drawing; a stated number take a swimming lesson; the drummers, fifers, and buglers also have a lesson. A luncheon of bread is distributed. One of the companies is at drill, one at gymnastics, and the other pupils bathing or walking until seven. Evening prayers in the refectory, and supper. Wash, and have recreation until nine, when they retire. The younger pupils retire at half-past eight.

In winter, the different occupations of the day are each one hour later than in summer, until half-past two, when the hour of review of the lessons is omitted, and the exercises, as far as appropriate to the season, follow in the same order as in summer, until half-past five, at which hour the pupils go to the school-room, and remain until a quarter before seven.

On Wednesday and Saturday, an hour is devoted to religious instruction, the other lessons being omitted, except the physical exercises on Wednesday. Stated days and periods of the day are assigned for the exchange of the weekday clothes for those of Sunday, for taking clothes or shoes requiring repairs to the tailor or shoemaker of the establishment, for hair-cutting and combing, for washing the neck and shoulders, the feet, and for other minute matters.

The object of the Trade School, is, in part, to economize the funds of the institution, by making within its walls articles of clothing required for the pupils, but more to secure the acquisition, not only of general mechanical dexterity, but of a trade, which may serve to increase their emoluments when they enter the military service. There are, at present, one hundred and four pupils.

In order to pass into the trades’ school from the elementary division, the pupil must have reached at least the second class, have been above the fourth grade in conduct, be between fourteen and fifteen years of age, and of a bodily constitution fitting him for the military service. The course lasts three years. The school has a special inspector, or superintendent, who is responsible to the director of the whole institution, or, in fact, to his substitute.

The different trades now taught here are those of blacksmiths, saddlers, tailors, shoemakers, and lithographers. The last named has but seven pupils admissible to its school, and the next to the last forty-four. These numbers depend upon the demand for the occupation subsequent to leaving the establishment, the space required for the operations of the trade, the difficulty of teaching, &c. As each pupil is in general permitted, on advising with the inspector, to choose his employment, it sometimes happens that boys are sent into the town to learn a trade not taught in the school. Changes of occupation are very rare, but are sometimes permitted. The blacksmiths are principally engaged in the repairs of arms, the saddlers make the caps and accoutrements, &c., used in the house, the tailors all the uniforms, the shoemakers supply not only this orphan-house, but that of the girls with shoes, and the lithographers are occupied in copying forms for the school or war department, manuals, &c. They work about seven hours a day, under a master-workman from the town.

An hour of each day is spent in gymnastic or military exercises in the open air in summer, and in winter in the large room before spoken of. The military exercises, besides the ordinary ones, comprise some which are peculiar to the Prussian service. The usual exercises of gymnastics are introduced, omitting any which seem to have a tendency towards the tricks of the mountebank. For instruction in these exercises, the whole school is divided into two parts, and each again into squads, so that the teacher need have but twelve to fourteen under his charge. Non-commissioned officers are the under teachers, and in turn are superintended by higher teachers, and by an inspector.

There can be no doubt that to these well regulated and perseveringly continued exercises it is, in great part, due that the physical development of these youths is, on the average, so perfect. Judicious recreation, a proper diet and clothing, great cleanliness, a proper number of hours of work, of instruction and sleep, no doubt, are necessary, each and all in their degree, but great influence must be besides allowed to the gymnastic exercises.

The pupils have two hours of instruction during the day, intended to keep up their knowledge of the branches taught in the elementary school, rather than to teach new ones. Military drawing is, however, added.

When not in the shops, nor in school, nor at exercise, they are superintended by non-commissioned officers. The discipline in this school is military in spirit, as well as in details.

Those pupils who have manifested a decided musical talent in the lower school, are here instructed thoroughly in the theory and practice of music. The object is to supply musicians to the regimental bands. These pupils have a separate superintendence from those of the other schools, and different hours of exercise and duty. They keep up the knowledge acquired in the elementary school, as is done in the trades’ school.

Military Orphan-House at Annaburg.

The following plan of instruction was prepared by Dr. Harnisch, one of the most distinguished teachers of Prussia, formerly Principal of the Teachers Seminary at Weissenfels.

In order to rise to the place of a non-commissioned officer, the pupil must have gone through the lowest classes of the Upper School, where there are the following studies:—

Religious instruction, arithmetic, singing, the German language, calligraphy, geography and history, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and drawing.

The courses in the different branches are arranged as follows:—

First. Religious Instruction.

LOWER SCHOOL.

Class VII. Bible stories, psalms and hymns, appropriate to the season. Four hours per week.

Class VI. Histories from the Old and New Testament, portions of the history of the Christian church, catechism. Four hours per week.

Class V. Reading and explanation of the Bible, and of its arrangement. The gospel and historical works are selected, and the history is connected with the geography of the Holy Land. Catechism. Five hours.

Class IV. Doctrines of the Lutheran church, taught by Luther’s catechism. Five hours.

UPPER SCHOOL.

Class III. Moral instruction, duties to God and man. Three hours.

Class II. Reading the Bible with comments, the pupils making abstracts. Three hours.

Class I. (Two years.) The first year a repetition of Luther’s catechism. The second, a history of the Christian dispensation. Three hours.

Every class commits verses from the Bible to memory.

Second. Arithmetic. Mental and written arithmetic are taught together, that the readiness afforded by the one, and the accuracy of the other, may both be cultivated.

LOWER SCHOOL.

Class VII. The four ground rules, with three places of figures mentally. Application to questions in weights and measures. Three hours.

Class VI. The same rules extended. Three hours.

Class V. Fractions, with applications to weights and measures. Three hours.

Class IV. Proportions. Three hours.

UPPER SCHOOL.

Class III. The applications of proportions to questions of weight, strength, value, time, and general quantity. Two hours.

Class II. Exercises in practical algebra. Two hours.

Class I. Review of the course. First year, practical operations. Second, theory of arithmetrical processes. Two hours.

Third. Vocal Music.

LOWER SCHOOL.

Classes VII & VI. Practice of songs, adapted to youth of a cheerful, serious, military, or religious cast, with one part. Two hours.

Classes V & IV. Choral and other songs, with the different parts. Elements of music. Two hours.

UPPER SCHOOL.

Classes III, II, & I. More difficult choral pieces. Theoretical instruction continued. One hour. There is, besides, instruction given to a select choir, intended to conduct the vocal exercises of the church.

Fourth. Reading. In the lower classes, a readiness in reading, and in the higher, the style of reading, is attended to especially. Pieces learned previously, by heart, are recited.

LOWER SCHOOL.

Class VII. A good pronunciation, and some facility in reading. Six hours.

Class VI. Readiness in reading, and repeating the substance of what has been read. Familiar illustrations. Five hours.

Class V. Reading some work in reference to knowledge useful in common life. Four hours.

Class IV. Reading, with attention to emphasis. Four hours.

UPPER SCHOOL.

Class III. Reading the Bible and sacred melodies, with the view to correct reading in this kind of composition. Two hours.

Class II. Reading various selected works, in and out of the class.

Class I. Reading continued, and recitations from works previously read.

Fifth. Orthography and Writing. These may be taught together in the same way as mental and written arithmetic; the teacher is, however, at liberty to follow his own method.

LOWER SCHOOL.

Class VII. Copying on slates from the blackboard. Four hours.

Class VI. Copying on paper, from the board, and from books. Four hours.

Class V. Writing from copy-slips, from books, or from dictation. (Practice in spelling and writing.) Four hours.

Class IV. Similar exercises continued. Four hours.

UPPER SCHOOL.

Class III. Copying useful papers, such as registers, accounts, contracts, &c. Two hours.

Class II. Calligraphy, with Roman as well as German letters; practice in orthography; reading of letters and documents in various handwritings. Two hours.

Class I. Copying papers relating to the management of the institution, as a practical introduction to business. One hour.

Sixth. Useful knowledge taught by induction.

LOWER SCHOOL.

Class VII. The pupils give their ideas, verbally, of surrounding objects of the most simple kind, of the commonest productions of nature and art. Conversations relating to them. Drawing the most simple mathematical figures on the slate. Three hours.

Class VI. Descriptions of animals and plants, the former in the winter, the latter in the summer term. Written remarks on these, serving to afford exercise in the formation of phrases and in orthography. Four hours.

Class V. The most essential parts of physics and natural history, the pupils taking notes of the lessons. Four hours.

Class IV. Compositions on various subjects. Letters relating to civil and military affairs. Four hours.

UPPER SCHOOL.

Class III. History of Prussia, and drawing of maps. Four hours.

Class II General geography, particularly that of Europe. Passing from physical to political geography. Civil geography in connection with the former. Five hours.

Class I. Universal history. One year is devoted to ancient and one to modern history. Selections are made of the more important parts of history. Five hours.

The remaining studies only belong to the higher school.

Seventh. German grammar and style.

UPPER SCHOOL.

Class III. Logical and grammatical instruction of the German language taught.

Class II. Idiom of the language. Compositions on military subjects, with especial reference to correctness of grammar.

Class I. Acquaintance with the best writers. Exercises of composition on subjects taken from history.

Eighth. Geometry.

UPPER SCHOOL.

Class III. Teaching the names and properties of mathematical figures by induction, in connection with drawing.

Class II. Equations, with application to problems of common life.

Class I. Elements of trigonometry.

Ninth. Drawing.

UPPER SCHOOL.

Class III. Drawings from common objects, varying the positions, &c.

Class II. Copying flowers, or drawings of implements.

Class I. Architectural drawing with instruments, drawings of furniture, &c.

Dr. Bache makes the following remarks on the above plan:

I have allowed myself to present this extended programme, because it conveys, in as brief a compass as possible, excellent ideas of the succession of courses in an elementary school, and in a technical or trade school, for such the higher school must be considered. It should be remembered that the main purpose is the preparation of youth for the military service, and hence that the wants of the service are especially consulted. Another fact must be remembered, namely, that this is a Lutheran school, and therefore the religious instruction is adapted to the particular views of that church. The course of morals of the third class, I must say, however, seems to me out of its place, for although our duties to God and our neighbor are of course best learned from his Word, yet their inculcation by precept and example can not commence too early.

In the arithmetical course, the union of mental and written arithmetic is absolutely essential. The gradation appears to me good, and the application to questions of common life gives a zest to such studies, attainable in no other way. The theory of arithmetical processes, however, should accompany or follow more nearly their practical acquisition. Indeed, if they are taught as they ought to be, by induction, the theory goes with the practice.

If the youth at Annaburg take the same pleasure in the exercises of song, from the elements to the completion of the musical course, as those of the school9 actually superintended by the author of this project, the success will be complete.

The connection of orthography and writing, especially if combined with early reading, is natural.

The exercises of induction, which in the lower classes are well drawn out, deviate from the appropriate track in the fourth class, and in the geographical and historical courses do not return to it. The system in both these branches is rather synthetical than inductive. There is a great temptation to break away from this method, into that of giving positive instruction, from the apparently greater rapidity of progress of the pupil; some teachers have abandoned it altogether, as too slow, though ultimately to their cost, as appeared to me in cases where I had an opportunity of comparing the results.

The writing is preceded by an introductory course of drawing, which might with excellent effect be so extended as to branch out into complete courses of drawing and writing.

As this plan results from an extended experience, the number of hours of instruction, per week, necessary to secure the results, is an important datum, and as such I have retained it, whenever it was inserted in the original programme.

II. THE SCHOOL DIVISION OR NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS’ SCHOOL.

A military school of a somewhat peculiar character for training up young men for the duties of non-commissioned or under officers exist at Potsdam, and is known as the School Division.

The rules of the Prussian Military system, which require only three years absolute service in the standing army in time of peace, evidently entail a great practical difficulty in this respect. The soldiers, as a rule, prefer to quit the service at the end of their three years’ time, and require great inducements to persuade them to remain. As one inducement, the state has declared that twelve years’ service gives a non-commissioned officer a formal claim to civil employment; as, for example, on the railways or in the custom-houses. Their pay also as non-commissioned officers goes on increasing according to the length of their service; and it was stated to be the usual practice not to advance soldiers to be non-commissioned officers until they had signed an undertaking to serve for a longer period than could be exacted of them otherwise.

A further means of supplying the want has been sought, and appears to have been found in the School Division. The circumstances of its origin have placed this establishment in immediate connection with the Corps of Guards, to which, in a military sense, they belong, at whose head-quarters, the town of Potsdam, their buildings are situated, and whose garrison duty in the town they occasionally undertake.

At its first commencement the pupils chiefly came in drafts from the Military Orphan-Houses. But the applications from the country in general have been so numerous that this practice has been, it is said, abandoned, and a higher class of admissions has been attempted. The Commander of the Battalion of Landwehr for the Circle (Kreis) receives all applications in that Circle; he sees that the candidate is examined on the spot, in reading, writing, and cyphering; and forwards the name, height, age, and other particulars (the Nationale) to the authorities. The decision is said to be mostly made by the candidate’s height, and his medical certificate, and to be rather a difficult matter. Only one-third of the applications are successful. A new boy had just presented himself with his father at the time of our visit; both son and father were well dressed, and apparently belonged to the middle rather than the lower classes. There seems every reason to be satisfied with the amount of acceptance with the country which the school had begun to receive.

The age of admission is from seventeen to twenty, and the youth on entering the school takes a military engagement to give two years of service in the standing army for each year of his maintenance at the school, in addition of course to those three years of military service to which every Prussian is bound, but with the privilege of counting as military service the period spent at the school.

The usual school course is one of three years, and his engagement is thus for a term of nine years; that is, deducting three spent at the school, six years’ time with the troops.

The School Division is 496 strong; there are four companies of 124 men. The whole body is commanded by a captain, or major, who has an adjutant. To each company are attached four officers and fourteen non-commissioned officers; the latter teach in the two first years, the former in the third. The school course begins on the 1st of October; the afternoons of three days in each week are employed in ordinary school instruction, but the remainder of their time in winter and their whole time in summer is devoted to military training. The school instruction is not carried beyond reading, writing, and arithmetic up to the rule of three; geography, drawing skeleton maps, and copying, and learning the significance of military representations of ground. Some very respectable specimens of their skill in copying maps were produced; it appeared to be a favorite exercise.

About 150 are admitted yearly, an extra number being taken to supply possible vacancies; about 130 yearly are drafted into the army, six usually as under officers at once, forty at least with certificates of being qualified to receive the grade in a short time; and the whole number who go out have generally obtained their appointment before twelve months are completed. The highest number that may go out at once as under (or non-commissioned) officers is twelve; three for each company. Many, however, have latterly, it is said, become so within six weeks after their leaving.

Where the young men are strong and full-grown, they are allowed to join the army at the end of two years; their whole service (two years for each at the school) being therefore reduced to six years.

Young men, on the other hand, who show no disposition or likelihood to turn out good under officers, are sent off to complete the usual time as privates.

The proportion of non-commissioned officers in the standing army who are taken from the School Division was not easy to ascertain. It differs extremely in different regiments. In one, it was stated that out of the ordinary complement of 180, fifty came from hence. On the other hand, it was asserted that the general proportion was not more than one in forty. A certain number have obtained commissions; but no prospect of such promotion appears to be held out, and any tendency to carry forward the studies with a view to it is discouraged and checked.

The buildings, in the outskirts of Potsdam, are large, new, and handsome, forming three sides of a spacious court or imperfect quadrangle. The dining-rooms are used also as exercise-rooms, and it was made a point to let us see a portion of the pupils go through their gymnastics and exercises; and more particularly their sword and bayonet exercise. Twenty or thirty young men, very healthy and strong-looking, went through the latter exercise in two lines; after which came a single combat with the bayonet, all under the direction of an officer.

The sleeping-rooms are fairly large, and well ventilated, on the same floor. Twelve slept in each. During the day the wooden bedsteads are placed one above another. It was said that iron bedsteads are being generally introduced. Each young soldier is provided with a small cupboard above his bed. The non-commissioned officers had horsehair, the young men themselves straw paillasses. There was a stove in the room, but it was said not to be used.

The school-rooms are on the upper floor. The skeleton maps already referred to were here produced; one, of the two hemispheres, others illustrating Prussian history, showing the original size of the Prussian territory, its extent and condition under Frederick the Great, the whole course of its gradual extention, &c., very fairly drawn, and creditable to the young men.

The time devoted to the training which is given in the School Division appears long. What is now done in three years might as well be done in half that time. The object, however, is secured of retaining the service of the men during a lengthened period in the standing army.

III. REGIMENTAL SCHOOLS.

The Regimental Schools are chiefly intended to train up non-commissioned officers. This is more particularly the case in the artillery, which does not obtain its under officers from the School Division at Potsdam.

IV. THE NOBLE-SCHOOL AT LIEGNITZ.

The Noble-School at Liegnitz is merely an endowed school, founded by the Emperor Joseph I. while Silesia was yet an Austrian dependency, and specially intended for young men of good birth in that country. There are some military foundations in the school for the sons of officers of good birth; and the two military men who take part in the instruction are paid by the state, on the same footing as officers employed in the State Military Schools.

[Of one of the Institutions above described (The Artillery and Engineers’ School at Berlin) we shall give a fuller account, and in the meantime we close this comprehensive survey of military instruction in Prussia with the following reflections of the English Commissioners.]

VIII. GENERAL REMARKS ON THE SYSTEM OF MILITARY EDUCATION IN PRUSSIA.

1. Attention has often been drawn to the peculiar feature of Prussian Military Education, the double examination for the rank of officer. The principle adopted seems to be the exaction of a proof from all officers that they have received a good, general, and professional education, rather than the selection of a smaller number for higher training in a military school. The decree of 1808 first laid down the rule for the whole army, “that the only title to an officer’s commission shall be, in a time of peace, education and professional knowledge,—in time of war, distinguished valor and ability.”

2. The spirit of emulation is not so much called out in Prussia as it is in France. Early distinctions are acknowledged and appealed to, but somewhat sparingly. The following words express the view taken on this point:—

“A testimonial of fitness for the University,” says Colonel von Holleben, (i.e., to have passed the Abiturient examination) “dispenses with the examination for the ensigncy. In consequence of this rule fifty Abiturients on an average annually enter the army. These, as well as the Selectaner of the Cadet Corps, must be considered in point of scientific education, an excellent supply of officers.”

3. It will be seen that in the above words there is no reference to those rewards and advantages which are the stimulus of competition. There appears some want in this respect both in the earlier and later training of officers. Thus, in the instance of the Cadet House, there are numerous free places, but these are assigned to young men, not from any proof of merit or exertion, but entirely because they are the sons of officers or state servants. The most distinguished pupils, the Selectaner gain nothing more than to be permitted to pass these two examinations before, instead of after, entering the army. Honorable mention, is, however, made of the candidates for commission who distinguish themselves in the Division Schools. But in the Staff School—the natural resource of energetic young officers—the competition (which the school asserts as its principle by its entrance examination) loses some of its force, by the order of the pupils on leaving the school not being distinctly marked. It should be mentioned as an explanation of these facts, that in the general civil education of Prussia, competition is little encouraged, less than in our own, and far less than in the French, or even in the Austrian education.

4. The military system of Prussia, and in some degree its military education also, appear to have various objects in view. Thus the Cadet Houses, where the free places are chiefly given to the sons of military men, seem intended to keep up a military esprit de corps, and it is impossible not to be struck by the strong class spirit prevailing in the Prussian army. At the same time means are taken, as above stated, to obtain a good supply of highly educated officers.

5. Prussian military education seems to have been constantly correcting and extending itself. Of this the Division Schools are a striking example; and they deserve attention, both because their plan is peculiar to Prussia, and for the improvements they have received. The Prussians at first established numerous Division Schools, but they afterwards greatly diminished their number; and the general inspector of military education now contemplates, both for the sake of the instructors and their pupils, a further reduction to three or four. A large military school in three or four towns in Prussia, intended to teach professional knowledge to young officers after some short practical experience in the army, is thought a better mode of giving such knowledge than to place isolated, or few teachers, in regiments or army divisions.

6. One chief means of improvement has been the bringing the whole education under a single head. At first there were distinct boards for the examinations in Prussia, and for the schools, with a view to maintain the independence of each. It was found, however, that this led to a want of harmony between the schools and the examinations; and accordingly, whilst the board of examiners and the school professors are kept perfectly distinct, they are both subjected to the general inspector, who controls all the departments of military education. The effect of this has been to give more unity to all the teaching; an essential point where that teaching is entirely on the same subjects. By constant inspection of the schools, and the receipt of periodical reports from them, the general inspector of military education is able to compare the results of each, and to keep the whole system going at an even rate of progress.

7. Attention should be drawn to the somewhat complicated system for working the Military Schools in Prussia. There are two distinct boards, as we have noticed above, the supreme board of studies and the examinations board, one of which reports to the inspector-general on all examinations, whilst the other acts as his assessors and advisers with regard to the schools and on all other subjects of military education. Besides these bodies, each school has its own board of studies, which is generally formed by some one person belonging to the school, combined with distinguished officers or professors. Suggestions with regard to each school appear to originate chiefly from these latter bodies.

8. The department of military examinations and education is under the control of the general inspector, who “lays his proposals on matters of administration before the minister of war, but reports directly to the king in all matters relating to instruction and examinations.”

THE ARTILLERY AND ENGINEERS’ SCHOOL AT BERLIN.10

OBJECT AND COURSE OF STUDY.

The object of the Artillery and Engineer School is to give to such young men of the Artillery and Engineers as have been found fitted for promotion, the education necessary for the proper performance of the duties of a Subaltern Officer, and to enable them to draw profit afterwards from their private studies and the practice of the service.

The complete course of study lasts two years and three quarters. The instruction is divided into three courses, bearing the name of cœtus; on joining the institution, the young men enter the first cœtus. Before the commencement of the studies, that is, about the 1st of October, the General Inspectors of the two corps direct the young men who are to enter the school to come up from their regiments and divisions. They receive their pay and clothing from their regiments until they are promoted to the rank of Officer.

The first nine months of each year of study are principally devoted to theoretical instruction, the three last exclusively to practice. In the third cœtus, the course finishes with the theoretical instruction on the 1st of July.

The instruction of the first cœtus is directed to prepare the students for the ordinary Officers’ Examination, and at the same time to enable them to follow with advantage the further studies of the school. The instruction, during the first year, is common to all the students. Those who pass the Officers’ Examination enter at the commencement of the second year into the second cœtus.

In the second cœtus the greater portion of the instruction, but not the whole, is common to the two arms. In the third cœtus an almost entire separation of studies takes place.

In all the studies which are common to the two arms, if the number of students is too great for a single class, parallel classes are established.

THE STAFF AND AUTHORITIES.

A.—The Superior Authorities.

The Curatorium of the School is composed of the General Inspectors of the two corps. To it belongs the authority of issuing orders and regulations; no important change in these can be made without its sanction.

The General Inspector of Military Instruction receives yearly at fixed periods, reports upon the state and progress of the school.

The accounts are under the control of the War Department, with which the Director of the School is in immediate communication. Questions of principle and unforeseen cases of importance are decided by the Curatorium.

The Inspector of the School, who is an Engineer Officer when the Director is an Artillery Officer, and vice versâ, has the immediate oversight of it. It is his duty to see that the orders and regulations are strictly followed.

B.—The Executive Authorities.

The Director is appointed by the King. He is a Field Officer of either Artillery or Engineers, and has the rank of Commandant of a regiment. He has as assistant, a Captain appointed by the Curatorium. The Director is immediately responsible for the discipline and the finance of the establishment, and conducts its ordinary details, assisted by the Captain. He is also President of the Board of Studies; as such he exercises a general control over the instruction, and regulates the ordinary examinations.

Under the Director and the Board of Studies are four officers, three taken from the Artillery and one from the Engineers. They have the immediate charge of the students, and are themselves under the direct orders of the Captain.

The duties of Paymaster, Librarian, &c., are divided among them. They must also give at least two hours of instruction weekly to the pupils.

The Board of Studies consists of the Director of the Institution as President, and usually of the Senior Master of Mathematics, and the Instructors of Artillery and Engineering in the third cœtus. In equal numbers are likewise added Superior Officers of the Artillery and Engineers appointed by the Curatorium. The duty of the Board is to control the whole of the instruction, and to give an opinion when required, upon the performance and capacities of the teachers and students.

C.—The Teachers.

The teachers are to be selected as much as possible from among the Officers of Artillery and Engineers. Where this can not be effected, civilians of proved ability and experience are to be appointed.

The number of teachers is to be arranged with reference to the amount and extent of the studies, in such a manner that in the event of illness among them, no interruption in the instruction may arise. In addition to the teachers, there is a certain number of assistant-teachers, partly civilians, partly taken from among the fireworkers of the Artillery. The latter are employed under the Librarian, and in the practical instruction; they may also, in case of necessity, assist as clerks.

THE STUDENTS.

The maximum number of students who enter each year is 80; 60 from the Artillery, and 20 from the Engineers. In addition, a few young men may be received from the smaller German States. In the event of the number from one corps being short, an increased number may be admitted from the other.

The number in the second cœtus is variable. It consists, first, of the students previously in the first cœtus who have passed the Officers’ Examination; and, secondly, of such young officers as are appointed to the Institution by the General Inspectors.

The students of the first cœtus lodge, as far as room will admit, in the school buildings; the remainder, as well as the ensigns of the second cœtus, not yet promoted to officers, are quartered in a neighboring building. At least two of the direction officers lodge in the school buildings; a third lodges in the other.

The Director may grant permission to a student, as a matter of favor, to lodge with his parents.

The students quartered in the school and the neighboring building dine together in the mess-room of the school.

The officers (students) of the second and third cœtus live in lodgings in the town, and mess where they choose.

ENTRY INTO THE SCHOOL, AND PASSAGE THROUGH IT.

The entry into the first cœtus of the institution is conditional on the applicant having passed, in the manner officially prescribed, the examination for ensign. The necessary certificates are forwarded to the Director of the School.