PART II. MILITARY SYSTEM AND SCHOOLS IN PRUSSIA.

AUTHORITIES.

Report of the Commissioners appointed to consider the Best Mode of Re-organizing the System for Training Officers for the Scientific Corps; together with An Account of Foreign and other Military Education and An Appendix. London: 1857. pp. 442 and 245, folio.

Report from the Select Committee on Sandhurst Royal Military College; together with the Proceedings of the Committee, Minutes of Evidence, Appendix and Index. Printed by Order of the House of Commons. London: 1855. pp. 230, folio.

Helldorf’s Dienst-Vorschriften der Königlich-Preussischen Armee. Berlin, 1856.

Friedlander’s Kriegs-Schule.

Von Holleben, Paper on Military Education in Prussia.

Official Programme of the Principal Subjects of Instruction Taught in the Artillery and Engineer School at Berlin.

Account of the War, or Staff School at Berlin.

Directions for the Supreme Board of Military Studies. 1856.

Directions for the Supreme Military Examinations Commission. 1856.

Barnard’s National Education in Europe. 1852.

Bache’s Report on Education in Europe. 1838.

MILITARY SYSTEM AND EDUCATION IN PRUSSIA.1

I. OUTLINE OF MILITARY SYSTEM.

According to the law of the 3rd of September, 1814, which is the basis of the present military organization of Prussia, every Prussian above twenty years of age, is bound to service in arms for the defense of his country.

The military force of the country is made up of three distinct bodies, and the whole of the adult male population is distributed among them. It consists of,—

I. The Standing Army.

II. The National Militia or Landwehr, divided into two portions, viz., the first Landwehr and the second Landwehr.

III. The Last Reserve or Landsturm.

I. The standing army is composed of all young men between twenty and twenty-five years of age. The period of service in time of war is for five years, but in time of peace the young soldiers can obtain leave of absence after three years’ service;—they belong for the remaining two years to what is termed the “reserve,” receiving neither pay nor clothing, and they are subject to be recalled if war should break out.

Encouragement, indeed, is given and advantages held out to induce men to stay, and to take a new engagement for an additional term of six years; but it is said that only a small number are thus obtained. The bulk of the troops are men serving for this short time; and there are many, it should be added, whose term of service is even yet shorter. For all educated young men, all, that is, who pass a certain examination, are allowed, on condition that they pay for their own equipment and receive no pay, to shorten their service from three years to one. This privilege appears to be very largely used. It should also be stated, that young men of any class may volunteer to perform their service at any age after seventeen.

The Prussian standing army amounts at the present time to about 126,000 men. It is divided into nine army-corps or corps d’Armée, one of which is named the guard, and the others are numbered from I. to VIII. In each there is a regiment of artillery and a division of engineers. A regiment of artillery consists, in time of peace, of three divisions; each division of one troop of horse artillery and four companies, of which, one is Fortress artillery with two-horsed pieces. Each regiment has thus three companies for the service of the fortress and twelve for field service. The whole of the artillery is under the command of a general inspector, and it is divided into four inspections. An engineer division is composed of two companies. There are nine engineer divisions, one in each army corps. The whole are commanded by a general inspector, and they are divided into three inspections.

The promotion in the Prussian infantry and cavalry is regimental, and by seniority, up to the rank of major; after that it is by selection; and an officer who has been passed over two or three times may consider that he has received an intimation to retire from the service. In the artillery the promotion is by regiments; in the engineers it is general.

II. The first Landwehr, or Landwehr of the first summons (des ersten aufgebots,) consists principally of young men between twenty-five and thirty-two years of age, who enter when they have completed their period of service in the standing army. They are called out once every year for service with the divisions of the standing army to which they are attached, for a period varying from a fortnight to a month; and they may be sent in time of war on foreign service.

Those who have passed through the first Landwehr, enter at the age of thirty-two in the second Landwehr, or Landwehr of the second summons (des zweiten aufgebots.) They are called out only for a very brief service once a year, and they can not at any time be ordered out of the country, but continue to form a part of the second Landwehr until they are thirty nine years of age.

III. After the age of thirty-nine a Prussian subject belongs to the last reserve or Landsturm, and can only be summoned to service in arms upon a general raising, so to say, of the whole population, when the country is actually invaded by the enemy.

With the standing army, the center of the system, all the other forces are kept in close connection. For every regiment of the standing army there is a corresponding regiment of Landwehr, and the two together form one brigade. In the local distribution, every village and hamlet of the Prussian dominions belongs to a certain regiment of Landwehr, serving with a certain regiment of the army, and belonging accordingly to one of the nine army corps.

Such is the military organization, which, from the important part played in it by the Landwehr, is sometimes termed the Prussian Landwehr system. The history of its formation is remarkable, and the circumstances which led to its creation helped also to create the very peculiar education of the army.

The Prussian Landwehr or militia is not of modern origin; in its form at least it is but a revival of the old feudal military organization, so far as that consisted of raising the country en masse, instead of keeping up a permanent, trained, and limited military force. Landwehr or Landsturm2 was the old German name for this feudal array, before the system of standing armies was begun in Europe by Charles VII. of France, with his Scotch regiments. It was possibly the failure of the trained Prussian armies—long reputed the models of military discipline—in the attack upon France in 1792, and still more signally at Auerstadt and Jena, which partly led to the revival of the Landwehr as the peculiar national force of Prussia. The means by which Stein, and after his expulsion, Scharnhorst, called it into activity, was a master stroke of policy under the existing difficulties of the country. The following outline may be sufficient to explain its effects upon education.

The condition which Napoleon had exacted at Tilsit—a reduction of the standing army from 200,000 to 40,000 men—would have lowered Prussia at once to the rank of a second-rate power. It was adroitly evaded by the plan of keeping only 40,000 men in arms at one and the same time, disbanding these as soon as they were disciplined, and replacing them constantly by fresh bodies. Thus the whole population of the country was ready to rise in 1813, after the crisis of Napoleon’s retreat from Russia. The plan was chiefly due to the genius of Scharnhorst, whose early death deprived Prussia of her greatest scientific soldier. The Landwehr then proved itself a most efficient force, though its success was promoted by the national enthusiasm, which must prevent our taking such a period as a criterion of its permanent military working. Since that time it has continued to be the national army of the country.

We were assured that this peculiarity of the Prussian army system, by which almost every man in the country serves in his turn in the ranks, has had a tendency to improve the education of the officers. It seems to have been felt that the officers would not retain the respect of intelligent privates unless they kept ahead of them in education. And this impression appears to have been the cause of the royal edicts passed in 1816, by which it was required that every Prussian officer should pass two examinations before receiving his commission, one to test his general education, and the other his professional knowledge.

II. HISTORICAL VIEW OF PRUSSIAN MILITARY EDUCATION.3

The Prussian system of military education stands in close connection with the general education of the country, just as the Prussian military organization is the peculiar creation of that country’s history. And the greatest improvements in the army and in its scientific teaching have been made at those remarkable periods when we should most naturally have looked for them—the time of Frederick the Great and the Liberation war of 1813-1814.

The leading principles of Prussian military education consist, first, in requiring from every officer in the army proof of a fair general education before his entrance, and of a fair military education afterwards. Secondly, they encourage a higher military education in a senior school, which has almost exclusively the privilege of supplying the staff.

In this requirement of a fair education, both general and military, universally from its officers, Prussia stands alone among the great military nations of Europe, and this honorable distinction is in a great measure the result of the diffused system of education throughout the country, and of the plan adopted by Stein and Scharnhorst, to make the officers the leaders of the army both in education and in military science.

The military schools of Germany may be said to have begun with the Reformation wars. Some such were founded by Maurice of Saxony, the great political and military genius of Germany in that century; the example was soon imitated in Baden, Silesia, and Brunswick, and a curious sketch of military education, by the hand of Duke Albert of Brandenburg, has been lately published from the Berlin archives, in which theology and mathematics hold the two most important places.

The first school of any real importance was founded in Colberg, by the great elector, Frederick William, in 1653. This had considerable success, and both his successors, King Frederick and Frederick William I., improved it greatly, and finally transferred it to Berlin. It was the time (about 1705, 1706,) of the great advance in military engineering under Vauban and Coehorn, and a school for engineering was founded, in which some of their pupils had a great share. The first Prussian trigonometrical survey also dates as early as 1702; that of England was not begun till 1784. It may indeed be said that the scientific arms began to take a more favorable place in the Prussian army about this time. They have held, and even still hold in some respects, a less distinguished position in Germany than in France, England, or Sardinia; and the first instance of an artilleryman being made a general, was in the reign of Frederick William I.

On Frederick the Great’s accession he found several military schools in existence. These had been chiefly founded by his eccentric father, who had a passion for Cadet Houses and cadets, and their object is said to have been to supply an education to the nobility, who at that time were very ill-taught in Germany. After Frederick’s first wars, his own attention was much occupied by the need of a better military education, and he continued to work at the subject very zealously till his death. His example on this point, as that of a great military authority, is most instructive, since his object was at first only to educate cadets before their entrance to the army, but was afterwards extended to completing the education of officers already on active service. His views on the last point were carried out by Scharnhorst. They were the germ of the present Prussian military education.

It is curious to observe that the Austrian Succession War and the Seven Years’ War, the first great wars since Louis XIV., and which broke the Thirty Years’ Peace of the eighteenth century, are periods at which scientific military education made a great step in Europe. A Treatise of Marshal Count Beausobre’s on the subject first showed the existing want; it is entitled “Utilité d’une Ecole et d’une Académie Militaire, avec des Notes, ou l’on traite des Ecoles Militaires de l’Antiquité”. It attracted great attention on its appearance. Most of the military academies properly so called, date from about this time. The earliest warrant for Woolwich, dates in 1741. The Theresianum of Maria Theresa was begun at Vienna about 1748. The first French school was the celebrated engineer school of Mezières founded in 1749. This was soon followed by the old military school of Paris in 1751, and by the school for artillery at La Fère in 1756. Frederick’s own Ritter Academie dates from 1764.

Frederick began this institution with his usual energy, immediately on the close of the Seven Years’ War. “My fire is quenched,” he writes, “and I am now only busied in improving the practice of my men. * * * * The position of the common soldier may be left as it was before the war began, but the position of the officers is a point to which I am devoting my utmost care. In order in future to quicken their attention whilst on service, and to form their judgment, I have ordered them to receive instruction in the art of war, and they will be obliged to give reasons for all they do. Such a plan, as you will see, my dear friend, will not answer with every one; still out of the whole body we shall certainly form some men and officers, who will not merely have their patent as generals to show, (die nicht blos patentirte Generale vorstellen,) but some capacity for the office as well.” He had, in fact, seen with great admiration the improved military school recently founded by Maria Theresa; and as it is best on such points to let this great authority be heard for himself, we shall quote his own words:—

“In order to neglect nothing bearing on the state of the army, the Empress founded near Vienna, (at Wiener Neustadt,) a college where young nobles were instructed in the whole art of war. She drew to it distinguished professors of geometry, fortification, geography, and history, who formed there able pupils, and made it a complete nursery for the army. By means of her care, the military service attained in that country a degree of perfection which it had never reached under the Emperors of the House of Austria; and a woman thus carried out designs worthy of a great man.”

His letters show that he contemplated an improved school, and he says to D’Alembert: “I send you the rules of my academy. As the plan is new, I beg you to give me your honest opinion of it.” Accordingly, the academy was founded. We will describe it in his own words:—

“An academy was founded at the same time, in which were placed those of the cadets who showed most genius. The king himself drew up the rules for its form, and gave it a plan of instruction, which stated the objects of the studies of the pupils, and of the education they were to receive. Professors were chosen from the ablest men who could be found in Europe, and fifteen young gentlemen were educated under the eyes of five instructors. Their whole education tended to form their judgment. The academy was successful, and supplied able pupils, who received appointments in the army.”4

This school, which was opened in 1765, was Frederick’s only foundation of the kind; he was occupied with it incessantly. The plan of its studies was drawn up by his own hand, and we have many of his letters of encouragement to its pupils or professors. Whether he is writing to Voltaire, Condorcet, or “My Lord Marischal” Keith, he constantly shows both his well-known attention to the economy of his new school, and a paternal interest in his young cadets and their teachers.5

Accordingly, both in professors and pupils, the new institution soon gained an European character. Out of its twenty first directors, no less than ten were distinguished foreigners; one of the best teachers at Berlin was D’Antoni, a distinguished soldier from the Turin institution and the artillery school at Alessandria—schools which were still the representatives of the military science of the great Italian generals, of the Duke of Parma, of Spinola, and Montecuculi.

This institution was still, as it would appear, upon the old principle of juvenile army schools, nor does Frederick seem to have set on foot any school for officers after entering the service. But he evidently felt strongly the need of improving his staff officers, and of raising the science of his artillery and engineers. Thus we find him referring to the French engineer school at Meziéres; and he endeavored to raise the intelligence and education of his officers. It may, however, be suspected that the spirit of the “Potsdamer Côterie,” as it was called, became gradually, and particularly after Frederick’s death, too literary and speculative to suit the rough work of war; and it may, perhaps, be thought that some defect of this kind is still traceable in the excessive amount of teaching and the abstract nature of some of the subjects taught in the staff school at Berlin.

Such seems to have been the opinion of Scharnhorst, the virtual author of the present system of army education, and whom the Prussians still regard as their first authority on that subject. “Instruction is given,” he says, “at the military school in all literature, in philosophy, and in many various sciences. Frederick seems to have wished to lay in it the foundation of the education at once of an officer and of a learned man. Few men, however, are able to excel at once in various branches of human knowledge, and the surest means to do so in one is not to attempt it in many.”

We have referred to Frederick and his school rather to show the interest he felt in military education, than because his institution was very important. Military education was still very imperfect, and it completely languished in Prussia till Scharnhorst established it on its present footing.

Scharnhorst was himself an Hanoverian, but entered the Prussian service, and had seen by experience the defects of their system in the campaigns of 1792, 1793, and 1805. He had long devoted especial attention to military education and to all the scientific part of his profession. Along with Blucher and Gneisenau, he was considered one of the first generals of the army, and, on the exhaustion of Prussia after Jena, he was selected to remodel its whole system. He did not live to complete his work, having been killed early in 1812; but his statue near the bridge at Berlin, remarkable for its noble and thoughtful expression, records the gratitude of Prussia to its greatest scientific soldier.

“The perfection of the French military organization,” says Mr. Alison, appeared to him in painful contrast beside the numerous defects of that over which he presided. * * * * Boldly applying to the military department the admirable principles by which Stein had secured the affections of the burgher classes, he threw open to the whole of the citizens the higher grades of the army, from which they had been hitherto excluded. * * * * And every department of the public service underwent his searching eye.”

The work began with the commission of 1807, of which both Stein and Scharnhorst were members. And the regulation of 1808 laid down the principle broadly, that the only claim to an officer’s commission must be, “in time of peace, knowledge and education; in war, courage and conduct.”

On these principles, during the next three years, Scharnhorst laid the foundations of the present education. He abolished most of the existing juvenile schools, with the exception only of the Cadet Houses, intended almost solely for the sons of officers. He changed the previous war school into a sort of school d’Elite, consisting of a senior and junior department, in which the younger soldiers of all arms were to be imbued with such knowledge as might give them a scientific interest in their profession, and in which senior officers (also of all arms) were to have a higher course of a similar nature, success in which was to form a recommendation for employment on the staff. He began the plan of the division schools, where all candidates for commissions, but not yet officers, might conduct their military studies along with the practice of their profession. Its idea was to make some military study necessary, and successful study honorable, in the army. Finally, he began the present system of careful examination on entering the army.

The following historical notice of the origin and successive changes of the division schools is taken from a communication by Col. Von Holleben, and a member of the General Inspection of Military Instruction to the English Commission.

The cabinet order of the 6th of August, 1808, laid the foundation of the present system of military education. It regulates the appointment of Swordknot ensigns and the selection of officers, and declares that the only title to an officer’s commission in time of peace shall be professional knowledge and education, and in time of war distinguished valor and ability.

The cabinet order of the 6th of August, 1808, could only come gradually into operation; the system of military examinations had to be created, and the educational institutions had to receive a new organization, under the superintendence of a general officer. Four provincial boards of examination were successively established, and on the 1st December, 1809, a body of instructions, still very vague and general, was issued for their guidance.

A cabinet order of the 3rd of May, 1810, remodeled the military schools, directing, in addition to the cadet schools at Berlin and Stolpe, the formation of three military schools for Swordknot ensigns, (Portepée-Fähnriche,) one at Berlin for the marches (Die Marken,) and Pomerania, a second at Königsberg, for east and west Prussia, and a third at Breslau, for Silesia; and the formation of a military school at Berlin for officers. All these institutions were placed under the general superintendence of Lieutenant-General Von Diericke, who had also the special superintendence of the boards of examination. A board of military studies was created and intrusted, under his control, with the task of carrying the regulations into effect.

Before, however, the new institutions attained to any stability the war years of 1813-14-15 intervened, and the operations of the board of examinations ceased.

Soon after the conclusion of peace directions were given that the examinations should recommence, with an equitable consideration of the claims of the Landwehr officers, ensigns, and other young persons who had grown up during the war.

At first there was only one board of examination at Berlin, with large discretionary powers as to their mode of procedure. In April, 1816, a cabinet order was issued to form boards of examination for the Swordknot at every brigade, as the present divisions were then called, besides the existing board at Berlin, for the examination for an officer’s commission.

Contemporaneously with the nine boards of examination, the board of military studies, by an order of January, 1816, directed the establishment of schools for every brigade, and attempted to gradually regulate the instruction they gave. The schools contained two classes, the lower to prepare candidates for the Swordknot, the higher to prepare candidates for the rank of officer. As, however, no standard of attainment was required for admission into the schools, their instruction had to commence with the first elements, and was charged with more work than it could perform. The weaker scholars stayed two, three, or more years in the lower class, and the education of the better scholars was impeded.

During this and the following period the authority over the examination boards (the Præsidium,) was distinct from that over the schools, (the general inspection,) and it was not till later that both authorities were vested in a single person. This division of powers, intended to secure the independence and impartiality of the examinations, led to the result that the two authorities were occasionally led, from a difference of principles, to labor in different directions. Still, in the infancy of military education, the rivalry it occasioned, was favorable to a rapidity of development.

An order of the 16th of March, 1827, added French to the studies for the ensigns’ examination, and fixed a higher standard of attainments in military sciences for the officers’ examination.

Nearly at the same time, a cabinet order of the 27th of March, 1827, directed that there should be only one class for Swordknot ensigns in the division schools, and that after October, 1829, the candidate should obtain a testimonial of fitness for the rank of Swordknot ensign previous to admission as a student.

Accordingly young men had to be prepared for examination for the Swordknot at their entrance into their corps, or might prepare themselves by private studies and instruction during their service.

The task of the schools, still very comprehensive embracing all the liberal sciences as well as the military, was accomplished during this period in two courses of nine months, in a higher and a lower class.

A cabinet order of the 31st of January, 1837, introduced the entrance examination, instead of the examination for the Swordknot, being declared that every candidate for the commission of an officer, after his reception into a corps, should prove in an examination his possession of the knowledge requisite for a Swordknot ensigncy before his actual appointment. At the same time a regulation of the ministry of war, of the 17th of December 1836, remodeled and more precisely defined both the entrance (Swordknot ensign) examination, and that for the commission of an officer. This regulation, while it essentially modified the instruction given at the division schools, furnished them at the same time with a more certain clue for their guidance. The preparation of youths for the Swordknot examination during their service in the corps was discontinued. But the standard of the entrance examination was still too low, requiring only a small portion of the branches of a general liberal education, and that not in the shape in which they are taught in our gymnasia. Hence the evil result, that young men, previous to their entrance into a corps, had usually to prepare for the military profession at private institutions instead of at the gymnasia, and nevertheless brought with them a very defective amount of preparatory training; on the other hand, the demands of the officers’ examination were very multifarious. It still required the general scholastic sciences by way of formal education, and the military sciences as a special education for the military profession. Thus the task of the division schools continued overwhelming, and an aim was set before them which they could not attain.

A regulation of the 4th of February, 1844, reformed simultaneously the whole system of military examination and education.

The views which guided these reforms, the improvements and advantages which were hoped to be thereby obtained, were, in general, the following:—

1. The military profession, like every other, requires a general school education intended generally to cultivate the mind, distinct from the subsequent special and professional education for which the former is the necessary groundwork.

The former is tested in the examination for the Swordknot, the latter in the officers’ examination.

2. The preparatory education required from the candidate for a Swordknot is the function of the ordinary schools of the country. Nothing but what they can impart is required, and from consideration of the youthful age of the candidates (seventeen years,) the amount of preparatory training required is not the attainment of the highest class of the gymnasium, but only that required for admission into the Prima.

3. The required previous training not only gives the candidate a more certain basis for his subsequent military education, but, as being the groundwork of all professions, leaves him afterwards at liberty to cultivate the special knowledge requisite for any profession that he may prefer.

4. The division schools are freed from a multifarious course of instruction in the scholastic sciences, a task beyond their power: the result of which was that the majority of scholars were very little advanced in formal and general education, and but superficially grounded in the elements of the professional sciences, while they spent years in being drilled for an examination, instead of being educated for life.

5. If the division schools have an able staff of military teachers, they can give a good professional education. The younger officers, even if they never received the full training of the gymnasium, may still, by their professional training, raise themselves above their subordinates, (a class in Prussia often highly educated,) and are started with an excellent preparation for their professional career.

6. By the amount of liberal education required in the examination for the Swordknot, the friends of those destined for the military profession are admonished to provide them an education equal to that received by the members of other professions.

7. By the method pursued in the examinations the power is retained of raising or lowering the standard according to circumstances. When the supply of officers is deficient, the standard can be lowered; at other times, as at present, it may be raised. Since the above-mentioned regulations, the following essential alterations have been introduced:—

1. The examination for the Swordknot is again placed after admission into the corps, but no one can be admitted to attend the division schools without a testimonial of fitness for the rank of Swordknot ensign.

2. A testimonial of fitness for the university, i.e., to have passed the abiturient examination, dispenses with the examination for the Swordknot. 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. From the powerful impulse that military instruction has received in the last fifty years, it may be expected that the time is not distant when the candidate for an officer’s commission, instead of passing the Swordknot examination, will have to bring the finished training of the gymnasium; in other words, to have passed the abiturient examination.

3. Instead of the seventeen division schools there are now by the regulation of 1844, only nine, and a further reduction of their number to four or three is contemplated, with an improvement of the staff of teachers and a stricter supervision of the scholars.

III. SYSTEM OF MILITARY EDUCATION AND PROMOTION.

The standing army composed in the manner and under the circumstances already described, is supplied with officers who must have a good general education, and have served in the ranks, or have obtained a certain amount of professional instruction. The usual course is as follows:—

Young men obtain a nomination from the colonel of a regiment. This nomination admits them merely to service in the regiment as privates, with a recognition of their being candidates, aspiranten or aspirants, for the rank of officer. Before they obtain that rank, the following conditions must be fulfilled. They must pass an examination in the common subjects of a good general education, such as the sons of well-born or wealthy civilians may be supposed to receive. They must serve six or nine months with the troops; they must attend nine months at a division school, or twelve months in the artillery and engineer school, where they receive a course of special military instruction; and they must pass an examination in professional subjects before a board sitting at Berlin. They are then eligible for a vacancy. In order to obtain a commission they require further the recommendation of the officers of the regiment.

It is obvious to remark, that in obtaining a commission in the Prussian service the candidate’s chance depends greatly on the recommendation of the colonel and the after assent of the officers. The effect of this is to maintain an exclusive character in the army. Above two-thirds of the commissions are obtained by the course described above; the remainder are granted to those who pass through the cadet schools.

Of these there are five altogether, four junior establishments, situated in certain provincial towns, and one senior or upper school at Berlin, to which the others are merely preparatory. They are all supported by the state; mainly for the purpose of educating the children of meritorious officers in want of assistance; but they are also open to others. With the exception of the highest class of the upper school, the Selecta above mentioned, the instruction given is of a perfectly general character, and there is no obligation even for those who have received the most ample pecuniary assistance to enter the military profession. The discipline, however, is military, the teachers are mostly officers, the pupils are regularly drilled, and most of them actually go into the army. This they do in ordinary cases without going through the highest or select class in which professional instruction is given; they merely pass the same preliminary examination as the candidates nominated by the colonels of regiments; they enter the army without their commissions, and have to obtain them in the same manner as the other candidates, by serving six or nine months with the troops, and by following their professional studies in the division or artillery and engineer schools, and by passing the officers’ or second examination before the examining board at Berlin. Those who do remain to go through the highest or select class receive their professional instruction in it instead of in the division or artillery and engineer schools, and they are examined for their commissions by the board while still at the cadet school.

Thus, in the course usually followed, three requisites are exacted in Prussia before a commission is given; first, a good general education; secondly, some actual military service; and, thirdly, professional knowledge gained by something like a year of military study. But the military service is not required from the upper thirty students of the Selecta of the Cadet House.

It will be well to mention, at the commencement, the names of the two examinations. The first, the preliminary examination, merely testing the general education, admits to a particular grade among non-commissioned officers; those holding it rank between sergeants and corporals, and in consideration of their being candidates (aspiranten) for a commission wear a different sword-knot, and hence have the name of Swordknot ensign or Portepée-fähnrich. The first or preliminary examination is accordingly called the Portepée-fähnrich examination. The second, the professional one, is the officers’ examination, for the commission of second lieutenant.

These two examinations, for the grade of Portepée-fähnrich and for the officer’s commission, are either conducted or controlled by the Supreme Military examinations Board, (Ober-Militair-Examinations-Commission) in Berlin, a body partly composed of military officers, partly of eminent civilians.

The various examining boards, the central and the local ones, which conduct these two examinations, are quite independent of the military schools, and were formerly presided over by a different head; but in order that the system should be uniformly carried out, and as Colonel von Holleben expresses it, that “the examinations should exercise a salutary influence on education, and that their standard should be adjusted to the capacities of the schools,” they have now been placed under the same control as the military schools.

The whole department of military education is therefore now under the control of a single high functionary, bearing the title of the general inspector of the military schools, military education, and military studies (das Militair Erziehungs-und-Bildungswesen,) who reports direct to the king on all subjects relating to examination and instruction. He submits his proposals on matters of administration to the minister of war, who issues the necessary orders to the boards charged with the financial control of the various schools.

The general inspector is assisted by a supreme council or board of military studies, composed of field officers of the general staff and of the special arms, the directors of the war school, of the supreme board of military examinations, of the artillery and engineers school, the commander of the cadet corps, some of the consultative assessors (Vortragenden Räthen,) of the minister of worship, and of individuals selected from the general body of learned men (professors.)

The principal military schools of Prussia may be divided into five classes:—

I. Those which give a good general education to the sons of meritorious officers, but which are open to others, such as—

1. The Cadet Houses or Cadet Schools (Cadetten-Häuser,) which supply a certain amount of instruction in military professional subjects.

II. Such as supply professional instruction to young men who are candidates for the rank of officer in the Prussian army. These are—

2. The Division Schools (Divisions-Schule,) nine in number, one for each army corps.

3. The artillery and engineers schools in Berlin.

III. Those which afford professional instruction to officers already in the service, to qualify them for special duty, limited to—

4. The War School or Staff School (Kriegs-Schule,) in Berlin.

IV. Those intended to give special instruction for the training of non-commissioned officers and men. Such as—

5. The School Division or Non-commissioned Officers School (Schulabtheilung,) at Potsdam.

6. The Regimental Schools (Regiments und Bataillons Schulen.)

7. The Music and the Swimming Schools, and the Central Gymnastic School in Berlin (Central Turn-Anstalt.)

8. The Veterinary School (Thierarzeneischule.)

V. Those intended to give gratuitous education to the children, boys and girls, of non-commissioned officers and soldiers, whose parents are too poor to provide for them. Such are,—

9. The Military Orphan Houses (Militair-Waisenhäuser,) at Annaburg, Potsdam, and Pretzsch.

10. The schools for soldiers’ children.

In addition to these might be mentioned the Medical Institution, particularly the Frederick-William’s Institution at Berlin, and the Knight Academy (Ritter-Academie,) or Noble School, in Liegnitz.

The annual cost to the state of the military schools in 1856, appears to be as follows:—

NAME. Salaries. Dollars.* Other Expenses. Dollars.* Total Dollars.* Number of Students.

Department of General Inspector, 5,872 250 5,922 . .

Supreme Military Examinations Board, 5,400 300 5,700 . .

Board of Military Studies, 848 . . 848 . .

Board of examiners for Artillery Lieutenants, . . 60 60 . .

Cadet House at Berlin, 12,944 . . 12,944 420

Cadet House at Potsdam, 15,805 24,285 40,090 200

Cadet House at Culm, 15,738 18,436 34,174 160

Cadet House at Wahlstatt, 16,253 22,706 38,959 200

Cadet House at Bensberg, 15,935 24,853 40,788 200

General War or Staff School, 18,552 3,013 21,565 120

United Artillery and Engineers School, 15,025 1,910 16,935 240

Veterinary School, 8,514 4,165 12,679 . .

Gymnastic School, 4,046 720 4,766 . .

Division Schools, 10,800 6,195 16,995 Variable

Division Libraries, 400 1,200 1,600 . .

Miscellaneous, . . 680 680 . .

Totals, 146,132 108,777 254,909

* A Prussian dollar is equal to three shillings of English money, and 70 cents of United States currency.

The sums will come out right if the first-row total is corrected to 6122, and 4 is added to some item in the middle column (and hence the third-column total).

Or about £38,236 annually, exclusive of the charge for buildings and repairs, and the original outlay for their first establishment. The pay of the student officers, and the pay and allowances of the military professors and teachers, are, however, drawn from their corps, so that the above-mentioned seems only to include the extra pay granted to the professors, &c.

The expenses of the Non-commissioned Officers School, of the military orphan houses, and of the schools for soldiers’ children, are not given in the printed paper from which these details have been extracted.

IV. EXAMINATIONS—GENERAL AND PROFESSIONAL—FOR A COMMISSION.

Two examinations, one in general and the other in professional knowledge are required of all candidates for a commission upon or soon after their entrance into the army, unless they can bring a certificate of having successfully completed the regular course of a gymnasium, in which case they are excused from the first.

These two examinations, through which alone admission is obtained to the rank of officer, are so important, and hold so prominent a position in the Prussian military system, that we propose to preface our account of the nature and extent of each of these examinations by a short tabular statement of the circumstances under which the candidates for each arm of the service respectively pass them.

The following Candidates offer themselves, for the Preliminary, Ensign’s, or Portepée-fähnrich Examination, for the Second or Officer’s Examination (in all cases before the Supreme Board at Berlin.)

Those presented by the Colonels of Regiments, Before, after, or during (usually before) six months’ service with the Troops, before the local Division Board; After nine months’ military instruction in the Division School.

Those coming at the usual time from the Cadet House (from the class called Prima,) On quitting the Cadet House, before the Supreme Board at Berlin; After six months’ service with the troops, and nine months’ military instruction in the Division School.

Those who stay an extra year in the Special or Select class (Selecta) of the Cadet House, Before admission to the Special or Select class (Selecta,) before the Supreme Board at Berlin; On quitting the Cadet House, after one year’s instruction in the Select class Selecta.

Those for the Artillery or Engineers, except when they came from the Special or Select class, (Selecta,) of the Cadet House, After nine months’ service with the Troops, and three months’ stay at the Artillery and Engineers School, before the Supreme Board at Berlin; After one year’s stay at the Artillery and Engineers School.

1. The Preliminary or Ensign’s (Portepée-fähnrich) Examination.

According to a special law, any young man above seventeen and a half and under twenty-three years of age, whether he be a private or a corporal, if he has served six months in the army, and can obtain from the officers of his company a certificate of good conduct, attention, and knowledge of his profession, may claim to be examined for the grade of ensign or (Portepée-fähnrich.) If he succeed in this examination, he is recognized as a candidate, an aspirant for a commission; but his prospect of obtaining a commission is subject to a variety of subsequent conditions.

In practice, a young man who aspires to a commission applies to the colonel of the regiment and usually obtains a nomination before he actually joins; and, as the examination is entirely of a civil character, he is usually glad to try and pass it at once. Having recently come from school, he feels probably better prepared than he is likely to be at any subsequent time: for on joining the corps, he will have for some time to conform to the life of a private soldier, to sleep and mess with the men, and to mount guard in his turn; and with the drill and exercises, and the marching and manoeuvring with the troops, he will have enough to occupy him to prevent his preparing for the examination. The two qualifications for the ensign’s grade are, the test of the examination and the six months’ service; but it appears to be indifferent in what order they are taken, whether service comes first and examination after, or vice versâ.

The examinations take place quarterly, at the beginning of every January, April, July, and October. They are held in the great garrison towns by local military boards, consisting of a president and five examiners. Applications for permission to be examined must be made at least a fortnight before, and must be accompanied by certificates stating the candidate’s birth, parentage, &c.; certificates of diligence and good conduct from the schoolmasters or other teachers who have instructed him; and of bodily fitness from an army surgeon.

The local board of examiners is appointed by the general officer in command of the army corps, the centers of examination corresponding in present practice with the localities assigned to the division or army-corps schools, nine in number, presently to be described.

The first part of the examination is on paper; a vivâ voce examination follows.

On paper the young men have to write three themes or compositions in German, to translate two passages, one from Livy or Sallust, another from Cæsar’s Commentaries, Cicero’s Epistles, or Quintus Curtius; to translate sixteen or twenty lines from French into German, and two passages, a longer and a shorter, from German into French. They have one question in common arithmetic, one in equations, progressions, or logarithms; one in geometry, one in trigonometry; they have one in mathematical or physical geography, one in the general geography of Europe and its colonies, and one in that of Germany and Prussia. There is one question in Greek or Roman history; one in the earlier German history; one in modern; and one in Prussian history. They have also to show that they are acquainted with the common conventional signs used in representing the surface of the earth in maps; and they have to copy a small map of a group of hills.

The time allowed for each question is about three quarters of an hour or an hour; for each German theme, it is as much as an hour and a half or two hours.

The questions are of a comprehensive character; e.g. Give a history of the campaign of 1813, or of the life of Alexander the Great; enumerate the rivers flowing into the Mediterranean Sea, with the principal towns situated upon each of them. The German themes are, first, a curriculum vitæ, an account of the candidate’s life, which is, however, not supposed to count in the result, and is merely for the examiner’s information; second and third, two themes on some sentence or proverb, for the first of which the examiner assists the candidate by vivâ voce questions and corrections in drawing up the preliminary outline of arrangement; for the second he is left entirely to himself.

There is a subsequent vivâ voce examination in all the subjects, drawing excepted. The candidates are taken in small classes, not exceeding seven in number, and are examined together, but not in public.

The results of the examination are considered according to the system of predicates or epithets, sometimes also called censures. The candidates’ answers are characterized as excellent (vorzüglich,) good (gut,) satisfactory (befriedigend,) insufficient (nicht hinreichend,) or unsatisfactory (ungenügend.) Numerical values are attached to each of these epithets; “excellent” is marked with 9; “unsatisfactory” counts as 1; and according to the amount of importance attached to the different subjects the marks thus given are multiplied by a higher or lower number, by 5 in one case, by 3 or by 1 in others. German, Latin, and mathematics have all the highest estimate of 5, and are each five times more important than drawing, which is marked by 1; geography, history, and French, are each valued at 3. A young man who gets the predicate “excellent,” in German, will receive 45 marks, his 9 being multiplied by 5; whereas the same predicate for history would obtain him only 15, and in drawing only 5 marks.

German, 5

Latin, 5 Total, 25.

Mathematics, 5

History, 3

Geography, 3

French, 3

Drawing, 1

A report is then drawn up, and according to the marks or predicates, the candidates are pronounced as admissible with distinction, admissible with honor, or simply admissible; or their re-examination after six months, their re-examination after a year, or their absolute rejection, is recommended.

This report, with the candidates’ certificates, is forwarded to the supreme military examinations board at Berlin, and, if approved by them, is submitted in their quarterly report to the king; and the result, when sanctioned by him, is communicated to the respective corps.

The candidates are all informed not only of the practical result, but also of the particulars of their examinations; they are told in what subjects they have failed, and in what they have succeeded. The candidates can not, under any circumstances, try more than three times.

The young men who pass, are thus, so far as their qualification in point of knowledge is concerned, pronounced admissible to the ensign’s grade. They have of course to complete their six months’ service with the troops. Yet even when this is completed, a vacancy in the list of ensigns must be waited for, and months may pass before the aspirant receives the distinctive badge, the special Sword-knot, which marks his superiority to the corporals, and shows that he has gained the first step that leads to a commission.

The examination that has now been described is obviously one for which preparation may be made in the common public schools, and under the usual civilian teachers. A young man of seventeen need not have been positively destined to the military profession, nor have gone through special preparation for any length of time beforehand. The boards of local military examiners are content to take them as they are offered, inquiry only being made as to their birth and connections, and their previous behavior at school or under tuition.

In fact, those who have passed successfully through the full course of a school which prepares for the universities (a gymnasium,) are excused the ensign’s examination. The certificate they have received on going away from school, upon the abiturient’s or leaving examination, as it is called, is considered quite sufficient; except in the case of candidates for the artillery or engineers, who are expected to show greater proficiency in mathematics; and certainly a boy in the head class of a gymnasium ought to be able to pass the preliminary examination with perfect ease and with credit. The amount of knowledge required and the particular subjects selected are not those of the first, and are scarcely those of the second class of a gymnasium; and the assertion was even made that a boy from the upper third class might very well hope to pass for an ensigncy. Possibly a little extra tuition from the preparatory establishments, which are said to have sprung up with the special function of “fabricating Fähnrichs” might in this instance be required.

The official programme is here given, and may be compared with the studies prescribed in the upper classes of the Cadet House at Berlin, (see the account of that school.)

1. In their own language, good legible handwriting, a correct style, free from orthographical or grammatical mistakes, facility of expression in writing and speaking; some evidence of a knowledge of German literature.

2. In Latin, facility in understanding the Latin prose writers ordinarily read in the second class of a Prussian gymnasium. A written exercise in translation from Latin into German; grammatical analysis of some passages.

3. In French, facility in reading and in translating from German into French, and French into German, grammatical analysis of French sentences, and a knowledge of syntax.

4. Mathematics:—

(a.) Arithmetic and Algebra;—familiarity with the ordinary rules for the extraction of the square root of whole numbers and of fractions; Proportion and its applications including questions in Partnership and Compound Proportion; the theory of powers and roots, with integral and fractional, positive and negative exponents. Equations of the two first degrees, with one or more unknown quantities; Logarithms, Logarithmic Equations, Arithmetical and Geometrical Progression, and practice in the application of the various theories.

(b.) The complete elements of Plane Geometry, measuration of rectilineal figures and of the circle, transformation and division of figures; the first elements of the application of Algebra to Geometry.

(c.) Plane Trigonometry, Trigonometrical functions and their Logarithms. Use of trigonometrical tables. Calculation of particular cases of triangles, regular polygons, and segments of circles.

In consideration of the especial importance of this discipline for officers of the artillery and engineers, a higher predicate (i.e. a greater number of marks) will be required in the exercises of candidates for these two services; the knowledge expected in their case will be, though not more extensive, more thorough and deep.

5. Geography:—The general principles of Mathematical and Physical Geography, knowledge of our planetary system, of the motions of the Earth, and of the phenomena immediately dependent upon them. Readiness in drawing from memory the outlines of the more important countries, with their principal mountains, rivers, and cities. General outlines of Political Geography, in the case of the mere states out of Europe; a detailed account of the elements of European statistics, more particularly in the case of Germany and Prussia.

6. History:—A knowledge of the more remarkable events in the history of great nations, of the general connection, causes, and consequences of these events; a knowledge of the remarkable men of all such nations down to the present time. Special knowledge of the history of Greece, Rome, Germany, Prussia, with particular reference in this last case to its external growth, inner development, and to the principal events of the most important wars since the middle of the eighteenth century.

7. Readiness in general drawing, and in constructing mathematical figures; some skill in drawing plans of positions and mountains, in the way of preparation for military plan drawing.

8. The candidate may, in addition, be examined in other subjects, in which his certificates show that he has been instructed; for example, in Natural Philosophy, so far as included in his previous course of instruction.

It must be remembered that either before or after this examination some months must be spent in actual service with the troops by all but the pupils belonging to the Selecta of the cadet school; and that nine months of study at the division and artillery and engineer schools intervenes before the officers examination takes place.

2. The Second or Officer’s Examination.

The second or final examination for a commission, which generally ensues when the work of the division school is over, is held in Berlin only, and is conducted immediately by the central commission, to which reference has so often been made—the supreme Military Examinations Board, the Ober-Militair-Examinations Commission. This board or commission, a list of the existing members of which is given in page 179, consists, for the purpose now in consideration, of a president and five examiners, selected from the larger number to examine candidates for commissions.

The examinations are held continually; two opportunities are afforded every year to the candidates sent from each of the various army corps. The requisite papers must be forwarded to the commission eight days at least beforehand, and the candidates must appear in Berlin, and take up their quarters in the buildings placed at the disposal of the board on the Friday preceding the day fixed for the examination. The examination usually begins on the following Monday, and lasts through the week. The expenses of the journey are allowed, except, perhaps, when the candidate comes up a second time.

The certificates to be presented are the following:—

1. The certificate of birth, age, parentage, &c. (This is called the Nationale.)

2. The Curriculum Vitæ, (an account of the circumstances of the candidates’s past life, his education, employment, &c., &c.)

3. The certificate that he has already passed through a previous examination (the Tentamen,) held by the authorities of the division school.

4. A certificate of conduct during his stay at the division school.

5. A military drawing (Croquis,) with an attestation given by his instructor that it is the candidate’s own doing.

This examination, like the preliminary one, is partly on paper and partly oral. General directions are given that the examiners in both cases shall look mainly to the question whether the candidate has sufficient positive knowledge of his subjects, and capacity to explain and express himself, that mere lapses of memory shall not be regarded, and that natural endowments shall be principally looked to.

In the written examination, the candidate has four questions given him in what is called the knowledge or theory of arms (Waffenlehre,) including under that term all kinds of ammunition; three in tactics; one question in the rules and regulations which touch the duty of a subaltern officer; two questions in permanent and two in field fortification; one exercise in surveying, to test his acquaintance with the common instruments, and one to try his knowledge of the principles of plan drawing (Terrain-Darstellung;) while his general skill in military drawing is proved by his either copying a plan placed before him, or drawing one from a relief model of a mountainous district (nach Bergmodellen.)

There is a vivâ voce examination in all the subjects.

The commission meets once every month to consider the examinations held since their last meeting. The result is announced under the form of the predicates or epithets already more than once referred to. Honorable mention is accorded to an excellent examination, and mention to a good one. If there has been an unsatisfactory result in one of the subjects, the candidate may compensate for it by superiority in other subjects, but can only in this case be qualified as satisfactory (befriedigend,) and an adequate knowledge of “arms” and tactics is regarded as indispensable in candidates for the infantry or cavalry, and in “arms” and fortification in those for the artillery and engineers. No superior work in other subjects is allowed to make up for a deficiency in these.

If a candidate’s work is marked as insufficient (nicht hinreichend,) he is sent back for another half-year, and if he has done unsatisfactorily, for a complete year of additional study, with leave to appear for re-examination after that interval. In a case of re-examination, the two last predicates (nicht hinreichend and ungenügend) entail final rejection.

The report of the board is submitted to the king; the results are communicated to the various corps. The announcements sent to the candidates state the predicates assigned to the various portions of their work. Those who have passed, receive certificates of being qualified for the second lieutenant’s commission:—

This rank, however, is not immediately granted. A vacancy may be long in occurring, and must be waited for. Promotion is given according to their seniority on the list of ensigns in the regiment. Another condition must also be satisfied. When a vacancy occurs, the senior ensign’s name can not be submitted to the king for his appointment without a document stating on the part of the officers of the regiment that he has the requisite knowledge of the duties of the service, and that they consider him worthy of admission amongst them (würdig in seine Mitte zu treten.) If the majority is opposed to his admission, the name of the next ensign in order of seniority is, without further discussion, brought forward; if a minority or merely some individual officers take exception, they state the grounds of their opinion, which are then submitted for consideration.6

Special merit in the examination may be, at the king’s pleasure, held a sufficient reason for promotion before all candidates examined at the same time.

The following is the programme of the studies, proficiency in which is expected of candidates at the second or officer’s examination:—

I. KNOWLEDGE OF ARMS AND MUNITIONS.

A. Of Gunpowder.

1. General views on gunpowder and its application.

2. Ingredients of gunpowder; its qualities and use.

3. Fabrication of the same; principles on which the manufacturing process is based.

4. Statement of the various kinds of gunpowder in use, and their distinctive qualities.

5. Of the ignition, combustion, and power of gunpowder.

6. Qualities of good powder; examination of the same:

a. According to their external characteristics.

b. According to force developed.

a. By the mortar eprouvette.

b. By the smaller eprouvette.

y. Or, in default of such instruments, by practical experiment.

7. Manner of preserving gunpowder; characteristics and treatment of damaged gunpowder.

8. Precautions to be taken in working with gunpowder, and transporting the same.

9. The most ignitible materials for percussion caps, and the like.

B. Of Artillery.

1. Classification of guns, according to species, calibre, and the kind of warfare for which they are intended. (Field, siege, and standing artillery.)

2. General qualities to be required of a properly constructed piece of ordnance.

3. Construction of the piece; description of the same according to the various kinds of guns, specifying the use of the different parts. (An exact statement in figures is only called for in reference to the length, weight, and diameter of the piece.)

a. Materials; qualities required of them; enumeration of the materials generally employed.

b. Interior construction of the piece; length of bore, chamber, windage, and touchhole; their influence on the range.

c. External construction of the piece; appliances for pointing and managing it, and connecting it with the gun-carriage.

4. Construction of the gun-carriages; enumeration of the different kinds of the same, according to the description of gun, its destination, and materials.

a. Specification of the principal component parts of the carriages.

b. Distinctive characteristics of the construction of the various denominations of carriages.

c. General principles for determining the proper construction of the same.

d. General notions relative to the proportion of the weight of the carriage to the piece.

5. Construction of the limbers.

a. Enumeration of the different kinds of limbers.

b. Principal component parts and distinctive characteristics of the construction of the various kinds of limbers.

c. General notions relative to the weight of the limber in proportion to the piece and the gun-carriage.

6. Statement of the various descriptions of wagons used by the field artillery, and their destination.

7. Ammunition; enumeration and description of the objects belonging to it. (Exact statements in figures are only required for the diameter and weight of the principal kinds of projectiles.)

a. Projectiles; statement of the species of projectiles used for the different kinds of guns, and their construction.

α. Bound shot, cannon ball, grape.

β. Shells; their various species.

γ. Light balls.

δ. Stones.

b. Charges; general description of them,

α. In field-pieces.

β. In heavy artillery.

c. Primings; enumeration and description of the various kinds of primings.

d. Other military fireworks; statement of the principal species, and their general construction.

e. Transport of ammunition by limbers and carts; packing of the same.

8. Moving and working the guns:

a. General notions on the working of field-pieces.

b. Different kinds of operations with field-pieces; unlimbering and limbering up.

c. Position of field-pieces in firing, with regard to effect, cover, and celerity of movement.

d. Principal manipulations in working the same.

α. Loading.

β. Pointing.

γ. Discharging; the process according to the different kinds of projectiles.

e. Ascertaining the efficiency of a gun previous to using it.

f. Momentary unserviceability of guns.

g. Expedients for repairing a disabled carriage.

9. Artillery practice.

a. Exposition of the theory of firing (as far as it can be elucidated by a knowledge of the elements of mathematics;) general notions concerning the curve of round and hollow shot, and the influence of the force of powder, of gravity, and of the air’s resistance upon their velocity; the curve after the first graze; trajectory of grape shot.

b. Classification and denomination of the various methods of firing or throwing projectiles.

c. Range; conditions on which it depends; its practical limits.

d. Effect of projectiles.

α. Probable accuracy of practice; circumstances on which it depends.

β. Force of the blow; circumstances on which it depends.

e. Recoil, jumping, or bouncing; explanation of such occurrences.

f. Application of the various descriptions of guns, projectiles, and methods of firing, according to the nature of the mark, the distance, the position of the adversary, and the ground.

C. Of Small Arms.

1. Classification and denomination of small arms.

2. General principles applied to the construction of the musket, the infantry and wall-piece rifle, the carbine, the cavalry rifle, the pistol, and the engineer musket (if the candidate is in the engineers.)

3. Description of their construction and arrangement in particular; enumeration of the separate parts (an exact statement of dimensions only required for the principal ones;) object and effect of the same.

4. Estimate of the practical utility of the various kinds of fire-arms as employed by one infantry and cavalry (no technical or theoretical investigation, but only practical remarks.)

5. Ammunition, as the ball, cartridge, and patch:

a. Its preparation.

α. In the usual manner.

β. In cases of need, in default of the usual implements.

b. Preserving, packing, and transporting it, both in carriages and by the soldier himself.

6. Management of small-arms:

a. Theory of firing (in its general scientific bearings, vide artillery) as applied to small-arms: repeated elucidation of the curve, line of metal, axis produced, and the relative position of these three lines in the different ranges.

b. Practical rules for loading, presenting, taking aim, and discharging, at different elevations of the adversary, and at different ranges.

7. Cleaning and preserving the arms.

D. Of Side-Arms.

1. Classification and denomination of the same:

a. Cavalry side-arms.

b. Lances.

2. Statement of the general principles on which their construction is based.

3. Examination of the state of side-arms on receiving them (within the limits mentioned above in C. 4.)

4. Effect and management of the same.

II. TACTICAL BRANCHES.

A. Army Organization.

1. General sketch of the organization of the Prussian army.

2. Characteristics of the different kinds of troops (arms;) their peculiarities (their weapons are included under the former head,) their equipment and destination.

B. Elementary Tactics.

1. Account of the regulations concerning the distribution and formation of a battalion of infantry, a regiment of cavalry, and a battery, in line or column.

2. Formation of the different columns from the line, forming square, deploying and forming line, movement in advance, to the rear and to the flank, changing front and direction in line and column.

3. Formation of tirailleurs and skirmishers; posting, covering, moving, reinforcing, reducing, and relieving the same.

4. General rules on the conduct of the separate arms in action.

a. Engagement of infantry under fire and hand to order, in attack and defense.

b. Charge of cavalry, attack à la débandade, wheeling off of the fourth subdivisions (platoons,) skirmishing.

c. Employment and conduct of artillery in action.

5. General principles relative to the combined action of the different arms.

6. Tactical advantages of ground; level, hilly, open, close, uninclosed, and broken ground.

7. Attack and defense of localities, such as heights, woods, farm-buildings, villages, and defiles; false attacks, demonstrations.

C. Field Service.

1. Of Marches. General rules, method, and object; precautions, van and rear guards, covering parties.

2. Escort of transports of powder, provisions, and prisoners of war, in one’s own and in an enemy’s country.

3. Surprises, ambuscades, and reconnaissances.

4. Service in cantonments, camp, and bivouac, outposts, picquets, advanced picquets, reserve picquets (movable and stationary,) patrols.

5. Taking up quarters in ordinary marches and cantonments.

III. FORTIFICATIONS.

A. Field Works.

1. Object of breast-work and ditch profiles in plains. Plan of field-works; open works, salient angle, its dimensions.

2. Dead angle and dead ground. Removal of dead ground; flanking; line of defense; dimensions of re-entering angle.

3. Inclosed works; dimensions and space inclosed; works with salient angles only, and with both salient and re-entering angles.

4. Erection of works to be defended by artillery; firing en barbette, and through embrasures; platforms; magazines.

5. Communication with interior of inclosed works.

6. Artificial obstacles for strengthening field-works; requisites for their selection and application; method of construction; advanced ditches (demi and entire;) trous-de-loup; abattis; palisades and fraises; barriers; chevaux-de-frise; pickets; caltrops; harrows; sluices and inundations; fougasses; blockhouses; caponiers; double, single, and demi-caponiers à revers.

7. Strength of garrison of field-works.

8. Defilading, horizontal and vertical, of open and inclosed works; traverses and bonnettes.

9. Construction of small open and inclosed field-works; marking out; tracing; profiling; number and employment of workmen; excavating the ditch; formation and revetment of the slopes with sods, fascines, wicker-work, gabions, sand-bags, wood, or stones; selection, preparation, and application of the reveting materials. (Of the execution of the revetment only so much as may show whether the examinee will be capable of undertaking the direction of such works in an efficient manner.)

10. Fortification of heights and defiles.

11. Object, general arrangement, and advantageous situation of a tête-de-pont.

12. Arrangements for the defense of woods, hedges, houses, churches, and churchyards.

13. Attack and defense of a redoubt; surprise; attack by open force.

14. Repairing and destroying roads, fords, and bridges, wooden and stone; construction of foot bridges, carriage bridges, bridges across swamps.

B. Permanent Fortifications.

1. Construction of a bastioned front in a plain, with ravelin, tenaille, and covered way, in plan and profile, after the first system of Vauban, with the improvements of Cormontaigne; name and destination of every single part, angle, and line.

2. Brief description of a regular attack upon a bastioned fortress; sketch of the preparations for attack; lines of circumvallation and contravallation.

Description of parallels, approaches, demi-parallels, and the duties of the infantry in them; saps, trench cavaliers; carrying the covered way, crowning the glacis, passage of the ditch, escalade of the rampart. These operations to be detailed according to their object, position, and arrangement, but without special reference to their technical execution.

General notions relative to the batteries of a besieging army, their position, object, calibre of guns, and practice.

3. Outlines of the system of defense of a fortress relative to the employment of infantry and cavalry in garrison, and of the standing artillery in arming the fortress and placing it in a state of defense against a regular attack or an attack by open force in all its stages.

Especial knowledge of the duties of infantry and cavalry in garrison, in guarding, occupying, and defending the works, and in sallies, required.

4. Historical sketch of an actual siege (on which the examinee has attended a lecture,) and the principles of the attack and defense of fortresses in general.

5. Account of the situation, form, arrangement, and object of some of the means employed for increasing the permanent strength of fortresses, exclusive of the more technical points.

a. The rampart of the body of the place. Angle of the bastions and its effect; length of flanks and faces; auxiliary flanks; empty and solid bastions attached and detached fausse-brayes.

The escarp, earthen wall, revetment, demi-revetment, simple crenneled wall, arched crenneled wall, revetment en décharge; perpendicular and parallel casemates.

b. The main ditch, dry, wet, and dry or inundated at pleasure; sluices, coffer-dams, reservoirs.

c. Outworks. Ravelin, tenaille, counterguards, cover-faces, envelopes, tenaillons, lunettes.

d. Advanced works. Simple and double tenaille; horn-work before a bastion or redoubt; crown-work; double crown-work; advanced ditch, with advanced covered way.

e. Detached works, open or inclosed at the gorge.

f. Interior works. Cuts inside the bastions; réduits; citadels.

6. Historical notions of the characteristics of some of the principal systems of fortification, e.g. the old and modern Italian, the old Dutch, Vauban’s second and third manner, the ideas of Coehorn, Rimpler, the French school, and that of Montalembert, compared with Vauban’s first system, but without statement of proportions; in addition to this, the characteristics of the latest Prussian fortifications, always with the omission of details more especially technical.

7. Modified methods of attack; surprise, assault, bombardment, blockade; explanation and statement of circumstances in which attacks of this kind are practicable.

IV. SURVEYING AND DRAWING PLANS.

1. Knowledge of the instruments generally employed in military surveying, and their use.

a. Instruments for measuring and marking out straight lines;

viz.— Signals, bandrols, or jalons, common staves, picket posts, rods, measuring chains, measuring cord, the step.

b. Instruments used for protracting the lines measured, viz.—

The step measure, calliper compasses, beam compasses, dividing and reducing compasses.

c. Instruments for measuring and marking out horizontal angles: The

square, the plane table, caloptric compasses, the reflector, the sea-compass, the prismatic compass, the astrolabe:

d. Instruments for measuring vertical angles:

Lehmann’s dioptric rule, Schmalkalder’s holometer, the quadrant.

e. Leveling instruments:

The ordinary mason’s level, the spirit level, the water level, the spirit level à lunette, the plumb rule, Lehmann’s dioptric rule in connection with the plane table, placed horizontally, the surveyor’s rule, Schmalkalder’s holometer.

2. Operations in surveying with the plane table, astrolabe, reflector, and compass.

3. Topographical survey of a locality (theoretically and practically,) reconnoitring, geometrical triangulation, detailed survey.

4. Hasty or rough sketch of certain objects, and entire (but limited) sections of country.

5. Drawing plans.

a. Notion of the elements of topography; rising and sloping ground, running and standing waters, division of ground in a military point of view, and characteristics of the same; open, inclosed, elevated, hilly, mountainous, broken ground.

b. Theory of plan drawing.

α. The first elements of the science of projection, and the construction of instruments for measuring slopes.

β. Fundamental rules for plan drawing in general, and for drawing mountains in particular. Statement of the various angles of depression of inclined planes through mountainous regions.

γ. Of the horizontals, and the laws dependent upon them, relative to mountainous districts.

δ. On the laws of defiles.

ε. On ascertaining the difference of elevation, and drawing profiles.

ζ. View of the accessories of plan drawing; the choice of colors and of type, and the order in which the operations necessary for preparing a plan are performed.

c. Practical plan drawing from copies and models.

V. MILITARY COMPOSITION AND KNOWLEDGE OF THE SERVICE.

A. Exercises in Military Composition.

1. Drawing up reports on incidents connected with the service, and with the duties of a subaltern officer, directed to the military authorities and superior officers of every rank.

2. Instructions to subordinates.

3. Applications and memorials.

B. Acquaintance with the General Regulations of the Service.

1. The laws on disciplinary and military punishments.

2. The proceedings in courts-martial, drum-head courts-martial, and courts of honor.

The preparation for this second, severer, and professional test that has just been described, is usually obtained in the division schools, of which an account will shortly follow, and to which any young man once accepted as a candidate, who has served his six months with the troops, and has passed his preliminary or ensign examination, may be admitted, even though a vacancy has not yet occurred, and he has not yet received his definitive promotion to the ensign’s grade.

V. MILITARY SCHOOLS FOR PREPARING OFFICERS.

The Cadet Schools or Cadet Houses.

The actual military education of Prussia commences with the cadet houses, the schools intended for pupils before entering the army. They are divided into two classes, the junior and the senior. They can not indeed be called exclusively military schools, since the education which most of their pupils receive is one which fits them for civil professions, and is not specially military; and there is no obligation even on those who have received the largest amount of pecuniary assistance to enter the military profession when they leave the cadet house. The highest class, however, of the Upper Cadet School of Berlin, called the Selecta, receives strictly military teaching for a year, and the schools may fairly come under this denomination, as being mainly intended to educate the sons of officers who are in want of assistance, and as possessing a military discipline, uniform, and spirit.

These are five in number, four preparatory schools, and one a finishing institution; the four first in the provinces, at Culm, Potsdam, Wahlstatt, and Bensberg, the last in the capital itself. At the four junior schools, boys may be admitted at 10 or 11, and may remain till 15; at the upper school the ordinary stay is from 15 or 16 to 18 or 19.

The whole constitute together a single body, called the cadet corps. Boys may enter the school at Berlin on passing an examination, without previously attending one of the lower schools; but those who are sent up by the authorities from Culm, Potsdam, Wahlstatt, and Bensberg, are received without examination, being already members of the corps. A single officer exercises the command of the whole; and a single commission, of which the general inspector is chairman, regulates all matters relating to the admission of candidates into the body.

The whole number at present is between 1,100 and 1,200, of whom 420 are in the Upper School at Berlin, 205 in the Preparatory School at Potsdam, and 200 at each of the other houses.

The cadets are of two kinds, the King’s cadets and the Pensioners or paying pupils; the former are 720 in number, the latter about 420. The pensioners pay 200 dollars (30l.) a year for board and instruction together; the King’s cadets are aided in various degrees accordingly to the following scale:—

240 pay 30 dollars (4l. 10s.) each.

240 pay 60 dollars (9l.) each.

240 pay 100 dollars (15l.) each.

Foreigners are admissible at a yearly payment of 300 dollars (45l.,) and a few extra day scholars (Hospitanten,) when the classes are not too full, are received for 20 dollars a year (3l.)

The King’s cadetships are granted, according to the pecuniary circumstances of the applicants, to the children of officers of the standing army, or of the Landwehr, who have distinguished themselves or have been invalided in actual service in the field; to the children of non-commissioned officers who have in like manner distinguished themselves and received severe wounds in the service; and to those of any citizens who have performed any special service to the state. The sons of meritorious officers who have died in indigence or have retired upon pensions, the sons of indigent officers in general in the standing army, and the sons of meritorious non-commissioned officers of twenty-five years’ standing, are also in like manner eligible.

In very special cases of poverty, the supplementary payment is dispensed with altogether.

Pensioners are admitted from all classes and professions according to priority of application, and to their qualifications as shown by their examination. A great number of these are said to be the sons of officers, of those, namely, who are not in need of pecuniary assistance. And the number of the pensioners generally appears to be steadily on the increase. In the regulations printed in 1850, the places open for this class of cadets are stated to be only 216; at present, as has been seen, provision is made for something like double that number.

The four junior schools at Culm, Potsdam, Wahlstatt, and Bensberg, are all divided for purposes of instruction upon the same uniform plan into four classes, numbered up from six to three—Sexta at the bottom; Quinta; Quarta; and Tertia at the top. The upper school at Berlin succeeds with three classes, the second, the first, and the special or select—Secunda, Prima, and Selecta. Each of these classes, however, may contain any number of co-ordinate subdivisions, all taught the same subjects, and presumed to contain pupils of the same capacity. No teacher, it is considered, can satisfactorily undertake to give a lesson to more than thirty at a time; and the Secunda at Berlin was thus parted out in the year ending March, 1856, into eight little sets of rather less than thirty, the Prima into six, and the Selecta into two.

Junior Cadet House.

The junior cadet house at Potsdam occupies four or five buildings a little way out of the town. The class-rooms are on the usual Prussian plan, not arranged for lectures to large, but for lessons with small numbers. One distinguishing feature is the character of the arrangements of the rooms up-stairs, in which the boys pass their time out of school hours. They are very comfortable chambers, perhaps rather small for the numbers at present placed in them; they are ranged along a corridor; ten pupils are placed in each, and between every two rooms is the apartment of one of the resident tutors (Erzieher or Gouverneur,) who sees that all goes on right in these two rooms under his charge. Here the boys sit and work, and during the hours when they are expected to be preparing their lessons, are carefully looked after by their tutors.

These little apartments occupy one whole floor of the building. The floor above is that of the dormitories, containing each, perhaps, as many as sixty. The number at present in the school was stated to be two hundred and five, and the accommodation properly intended for only one hundred and sixty.

Colonel von Rosenberg, the commandant of the school, stated that eleven was the usual age at which the pupils came. This he appeared to think was rather too early, and he was inclined to attribute to this cause certain points in the character of young men who have been educated in the cadet corps. Eighty of his two hundred and five pupils were pensioners, or paying pupils; many of these also were the sons of officers. The teachers and tutors are partly civilians and partly military men, about an equal number of each. The four classes, Tertia, Quarta, Quinta, and Sexta, are subdivided into nine, so that the average number at a lesson would not be more than twenty-three.

Senior Cadet House.

The upper or central cadet school is in the older part of Berlin, in the Neue Friedrichs Strasse, where on the pediment surmounting the gateway the inscription, MARTIS ET MINERVÆ ALUMNIS M.DCC. LXXVI, records the erection by Frederick the Great, ten years before his death, of the large and stately quadrangle which formed the original house. Here the pupils are quartered, and in the great court within, they go through their exercises. There are several houses on both sides of the street attached to the service of the institution, and buildings are in course of erection to accommodate additional numbers.

A large separate building contains the present class-rooms. In the first of these which we visited, thirty cadets were engaged in military drawing; in another, twenty-four of the second class, the Secunda, were busy at their Latin lesson.

The room was fitted up on what appears to be the usual plan, with a series of parallel desks on the same level, ranged along the outer wall, and a sufficient space between them and the inner wall for the teacher to pass freely up and down. His desk was at one end in front of the boys. The lesson was in Quintus Curtius. The teacher (a civilian) made them construe each a sentence, and asked questions in parsing, &c., &c., much in the English manner. There was no taking places. This in German schools appears to be confined to quite the lower classes. There is a separate lecture-room here again for lessons on Natural Philosophy and Chemistry, with a small gallery of models, instruments, &c., attached to it.

A large hall is used on state occasions, and serves the purpose also of an examination-room; it is called the hall of the Field Marshals, and is adorned with portraits of the sovereigns of Prussia from the Great Elector downwards, and of the field marshals both of the time of Frederick the Great and of more recent date, among whom is the Duke of Wellington. Here also is kept Napoleon’s sword taken at “La Belle Alliance,” and presented by Marshal Blucher.

Passing to the first floor of the great quadrangular building, we found ourselves in one of the sitting-rooms of the cadets. Seven boys had a couple of rooms, consisting of a common sitting-room, and a common bed-room. Five is the number for which this amount of accommodation was intended, and to five the number will be reduced when the new buildings are completed. In a second and larger pair of rooms we found twelve boys.

Here also is the library, containing 10,000 volumes, and comfortable apartments occupied by the various superintending officers.

The boys, their morning lessons completed, had been going through their military exercises under the superintendence of their officers; but they were now collected in their studying-rooms, and were seen forming at the doors, each small party under the command of its senior, ready to march into the large and handsome dinner-hall.

Into this the whole body of young men presently moved by companies, proceeding to station themselves in front of the tables. The tables are ranged in parallel lines on each side of the central passage, and accommodate each of them ten, four sitting at each side, and a senior at each end. The order was given by the officer on duty for “prayer” (Nun beten wir,) and a short silent grace was followed by the immediate occupation of the seats, and the commencement of the meal. The arrangements in general appeared to be excellent.

The number in the school during the past year had been 420. The four companies into which the whole body of the pupils is divided, each contain a certain proportion from each of the three classes; the senior in each company being invested with the charge of the juniors; those who are in the Selecta taking rank as under officers. In every room (Stube or Wohnzimmer) there is one Selectaner, who is responsible. The ordinary ages are 15, 16 in the Secunda; 16, 17 in the Prima, and as far as 19 in the Selecta. No one is, as a rule, allowed to pass more than one year in a class; if in that time he can not qualify himself for advancement, he is dismissed. The rule does not, however, appear to be strictly enforced. The general preservation of discipline appears to be a good deal intrusted, as in English public schools, to these senior pupils of the age of eighteen or nineteen. There are Resident Tutors (Erziehers or Gouverneurs) as at Potsdam, who see a good deal of the pupils, especially in the evenings, when they go into the sitting-rooms, sit with them, help them in their work, play at chess with them, &c., &c. But they do not sleep close at hand between the sets of rooms, as at Potsdam, but at some little distance off.

The official arrangements for the control of the discipline consist principally in the system of what are called Censur Classes. This is a peculiar system which requires some explanation. There are five Censur Classes quite independent of the ordinary classes of the school. A boy on entering the Cadet School is always placed in the third of these classes; if he behaves ill, he falls to Class IV. and is under restrictions. Class V. is reserved for serious cases of misconduct, and any one who incurs the penalty of descending to it, is subject to continual superintendence, and is confined to the walls. Class II. gives considerable, and Class I. still more ample privileges. The members of this class (usually only quite the elder boys) are allowed great freedom in the way of going out into the town.

In each of the studying-rooms (the Wohnzimmer) the list of the occupants’ names hangs up on the door inside. One for example was noticed containing twelve names. To each was attached his rank in the Censur Classes, as well as his position in the ordinary classes. At the head stood one Selectaner, who in this instance was in charge of the room; then followed the Primaners; and the list was completed by nine of the Secunda. As at the time of our visit (just after the Easter holidays and the yearly examination) the whole Selecta of the year had just quitted, the room was in the charge of the senior Primaner. The authority exercised by these senior boys appears to be very considerable.

The competition for admission to the Selecta, and for the after selection for immediate promotion, was spoken of as very considerable.

The number who came to the Berlin Cadet House without previously going to one of the junior establishments was said to be only a small per-centage.

The boys both here and at Potsdam were of course all found dressed in a military uniform.

The studies pursued in the Cadet Corps agree nearly with those of the common public schools, but of these there are three different kinds:—

1. The ordinary first-class school, the gymnasium of the Prussian States, is, strictly speaking, a school which prepares for the universities.

2. The second-class schools have the name of Real or Practical Schools; they deal with the actual application to business and work, not with the theory of mathematics or of language, and they may be said to resemble in some degree the schools occasionally attached in English towns to Mechanics’ Institutes, or in the United States, to the Public English High School or the Higher Department of a Union School. Young men who have passed successfully through a gymnasium may be admitted to the army without passing the preliminary or Portepée-fähnrich examination. Those who complete their time at a Real School have not hitherto been allowed the same privilege.

3. There is a third and intermediate class called a Real or Practical Gymnasium, and to this, according to the statements of the official books, the courses of the Cadet Schools have hitherto corresponded. It appears, however, that there is only one specimen of the Real Gymnasium now in existence, the Coëln School in the old town of Berlin. The system here is said to be more practical than the Gymnasium, and less professional or mechanical than the Real School.

It is intended during the present year to assimilate the course of instruction at the Cadet Schools more nearly to that followed at the Gymnasium or University School; the studies of the senior Cadet School at Berlin will be raised to a higher standard, but Greek and Hebrew, which are taught in all gymnasiums, will not be introduced.

The two systems have corresponded as follows :—

Class in the Cadet Corps. Age. Corresponding Class in the Real Gymnasium.

6th, or Sexta, 12 5th, or Quinta.

5th, or Quinta, 13 4th, Quarta.

4th, Quarta, 14 Under 3d, Unter-Tertia.

3d, Tertia, 15 Upper 3d, Ober-Tertia.

2d, Secunda (at Berlin,) 16 Lower Second, Unter-Secunda.

1st, Prima, 17 Upper Second, Ober-Secunda.

The Selecta, the Military Class, corresponds with the classes of the Division Schools, and with the first year’s course of the Artillery and Engineers’ School.

The plan pursued, both as regards, first, the subjects taught, and second, the amount of time, is as follows:—

The instruction consists throughout, from Sexta up to Prima, of lessons in Latin, German, French, Arithmetic, History, Geography. Natural History begins in the Quinta, at 12 or 13 years old, with Botany and Zoölogy; Mineralogy follows, at 14 or 15; Natural Philosophy at 15 or 16. The first elements of drawing, with the use of rulers, compasses, &c., begins also in Quinta, at 12 or 13. Practice in regular plan-drawing is gradually and increasingly given in every year. The first elements of geometry are taught in the Quarta, and Euclid I. 47. Pythagoras, has to be mastered at 14 years old. Theoretical Arithmetic, in combination with Algebra, is commenced apparently in the Tertia.

The subjects taught in the Secunda, Prima, and Selecta, that is, the course of the Upper School at Berlin, has hitherto been as follows:—

In the Secunda:

Quintus Curtius, Cicero’s Orations, and Ovid’s Metamorphoses; in Mathematics, the completion of Plane and commencement of Solid Geometry; Quadratic Equations; the Physical, Statistical, and Ethnographical Geography of Europe; Ancient History, and History of the Middle Ages, down to the Thirty Years’ War; a first course of Natural Philosophy; French and German Composition continued; Theory and Practice of Military drawing.

In the Prima:

Livy and Virgil; in Algebra, Progressions, Logarithms, Exponential Equations; Trigonometry, Mathematical and pure Physical Geography in general; Modern History; second course of Natural Philosophy, Heat, Electricity, Magnetism, Sound, Light; French, Exercise in Speaking, &c.; History of German Literature; Composition, extempore Exercises; Military Drawing continued.

In the Selecta:

Arms and Munitions, and Artillery; Fortification, Tactics, Military Literature Practical Exercises, Military Drawing and Surveying; exercises in French and German; Mental Philosophy; Chemistry; and the Differential and Integral Calculus for those who propose to enter the Artillery or the Engineers.

The Secunda have weekly—

6 hours of Latin.

3 “ of German.

4 “ of French.

5 “ of Mathematics.

2 “ of History.

2 “ of Geography.

2 “ of Natural Philosophy.

2 “ of Lessons in Drawing.

2 “ of Religious Instruction.

2 “ of French Conversation.

Total, 30 hours weekly.

The Prima—

The same amount in Latin, German, French, Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, French, Conversation, and Drawing; in History 3, and in General Geography 2, and Mathematical Geography 1; of Religious Instruction 1. 33 hours weekly.

The Selecta have—

4 hours of Tactics.

2 “ of Military Literature.

1 “ of Military Law and Regulations.

5 “ of Artillery.

5 “ of Fortification.

2 “ of Plan Drawing.

2 “ of Mental Philosophy, or English.

2 “ of Chemistry.

2 “ of Mathematics.

2 “ of French.

2 “ of German.

Total, 20 hours weekly.

The lessons appear to be going on from 8 to 11 or 12 in the morning, and from 2 to 4 or 5 in the evening. The pupils have two hours’ drill twice a week. They get up at half-past 5, have breakfast, and an hour’s preparation before lessons begin. There are similar hours of study in the evening from 6 to 8; and some of the pupils also take private lessons from the teachers.7 During these special hours of study (Arbeitstunde,) the chambers are visited by the officers and tutors, assistance is given and diligence enforced. From 8 to half-past 9 they study as they please; the tutors are a good deal with them in the rooms; at 10 all are in bed. Wednesday and Saturday are half holidays; on Sunday they attend morning service in the garrison church, and after that is over, are allowed to be more or less absent in the town, to be with their parents, relations, and friends.

For the 420 cadets of the Institution at Berlin, there appear to be about twenty professors and teachers not residing in the school, the majority of whom are civilians; and in addition to these, twenty tutors and superintendents resident in the buildings. Of these, sixteen are military officers, half of whom are permanently attached to the corps, and half on duty from various regiments, and four are civilians. The cadets being divided into four companies, each containing so many of the Selecta, so many of the Prima, and so many of the Secunda, to each of these companies are attached one captain, one first-lieutenant, and two second-lieutenants, all of whom, however, take some part in the instruction; and one civilian (Civil-Erzieher) is added with the especial duty of looking after and assisting the studies of the cadets of the company.

The holidays are one month in summer (in July and August,) ten days or a fortnight at Christmas, eight days at Easter, and four at Whitsuntide.

The rules for the entrance of cadets into the army are as follows:—Those who complete their year in the Prima are considered to be sufficiently prepared for ordinary admission. They are sent in to an examination before the Supreme Examinations Board (the Ober-Militair-Examinations-Commission) before examiners entirely independent of and unconnected with the instruction of the cadets; and the majority, if they pass, are admitted simply as Portepée-fähnriche, on the same conditions as the young men already spoken of who enter upon the recommendation merely of the commanding officer of a regiment and the approval of the commanding officer of an army corps. Like these, they serve in the regiment, they attend the Division Schools, and in due time offer themselves for examination for a commission.