Upon the results of this the Supreme War Department will determine upon their promotion to the rank of First Lieutenants (if they are not already of that rank,) and this without any reference to their previous position, their position henceforth being simply determined by their merit.

The same grounds determine the cases of those who are admitted to the Staff, or who return to their respective arms.

Those who, after a satisfactory completion of the course, return to service with the troops, will, after three years' meritorious service, be specially recommended for extraordinary promotion.

Control of the Institutions.

The Upper and Lower Houses of Education, the Infantry School Companies, the Cavalry School Squadrons, and the Frontier School Companies, are under the orders of the Commanders of the Army, the Army Corps, or the military government in whose district they are situated. The Artillery and Engineer School Companies are under the orders of the General Artillery and Engineer Departments; the Pioneer and Flotilla School Companies, under those of the Quartermaster-General's Department; the Marine School Company, under those of the Admiralty. Which functionaries, however, receive from the Supreme War Department all directions relating to organization and instruction.

The Cadet Schools, the Academies, the Military Teachers' School, the Upper Artillery and Engineer Course, and the War School, are immediately under the orders of the Supreme War Department.

The general organization of all the military schools and places of instruction is once for all established by the regulations sanctioned⚫ by His Majesty. These regulations contain all that concerns the physical, moral, and intellectual training of the pupils, and all have the one object of rearing them up as worthy members of the Austrian army, and faithful supporters of the throne and of the honor of their country.

III. REMARKS ON THE AUSTRIAN MILITARY EDUCATION.

The English Commissioners in their General "Report on the Education and Training of Officers for the Scientific Corps" hold the following language:

The magnitude of the Military Education of Austria entitles it to rank among the chief Institutions of the Empire. It has been remodeled since the wars of 1848, 1849. It is now centralized, and wholly directed by one of the four Co-ordinate Sections of the War

Office, which is independent of the others, and reports directly to the Emperor. This Educational or "Fourth" Section has the control of between 300,000l. and 400,000l. yearly. It provides for the free or nearly free education of more than 5,000 pupils. The extent and completeness of the system will be best understood by a reference to the clear and valuable official account of the schools.*

The military schools are divided by this document into (1) those which educate pupils for Non-commissioned Officers, (2) those which educate for Officers, (3) and those Senior Schools which complete the education and extend the instruction of both classes. The method of training Non-commissioned Officers is a peculiar and remarkable part of the system.

1. No less than 5,730 pupils are in process of being educated for Non-commissioned Officers. They are received into a Military School at seven years old, and at that early age are devoted to the army, with a kind of solemnity, by their fathers, somewhat similar to the practice at Woolwich Academy:-"I hereby pledge myself to surrender up my son to the Imperial Military Service, in case of his being admitted into a Military Educational Institution, and I will under no pretext require his return." This promise, as the official document states, may no doubt be recalled if the youth finds that he has mistaken his vocation; but it must exercise great influence (and such is its avowed object) in retaining him in it.

After passing successively through two Junior Institutions,-the Lower Houses of Education, where he continues till eleven years old, and the Upper Houses, where he remains till fifteen,-the boy receives his finishing course in one of what are termed the School Companies, the highest class of schools for training boys to become Non-commissioned Officers in all arms of the service. These are twenty in number, and scattered over the whole Empire, containing generally 120 pupils each, though in one case only sixty; and with a course of either two or three years, according to the nature of the service. The extent and the requirements of the Empire give a striking variety to their character. Thus, in the frontier School Companies, "the range of the studies is more extensive, because the Non-commissioned Officers on the Military Frontiers are intrusted with the general administration, and require of necessity a knowledge of Political Administration, of Jurisprudence, and Agricul ture;" and thus also the Non-commissioned Officers for the responsible Flotilla Service of the mouths of the great rivers, the lagoons of the Po, the head of the Adriatic, and the lakes, are carefully

*See Ante, p. 412-441.

educated and frequently promoted. Following the course of a pupil through these Upper Houses and School Companies, we were much struck by the sensible and vigorous character of the education, and the motives supplied for exertion. In the Upper Houses the boys compete for entrance to the School Companies which they prefer, and the more scientific companies are a special object of ambition, because it is more usual in these for young men to be raised by their talents to the Academies, and thus made Officers, "free of all cost:" according to the regulations, however, this is possible in all. It may be stated that from six to ten pupils from each of the more scientific School Companies, the Artillery, Engineer, Pioneer, Flotilla, and Marine Companies,-are yearly transferred to the Academies, to complete their education there for the Officer's Commission.

A system of this kind, supplying at once a good education and large opportunities of advancement, must necessarily operate as a great encouragement to young men educating for Non-commissioned Officers; and allowing for the social differences of the two countries, it resembles in spirit the French system, which throws open the gates of the Polytechnic and St. Cyr, and with them a proportion of the Commissions in the Army, to all.

This, however, is not all. The sums devoted to the education of Non-commissioned Officers, as well as Officers, are immense, and may be regarded as a spontaneous contribution of the National Feeling, no less than a State provision. A system both of public and private foundations (Stiftungen) prevails-part derived from the Emperor, part from the provinces, part from private gifts and legacies-by which 3,190 pupils are supported in the Houses of Education and the School Companies, and 1,320 in the Cadet Schools and Academies. The very large majority of these exhibitions supply a complete, about 200 a partial, maintenance. And it is curious to observe the aid to education which is so common in our own Universities, devoted in Austria to what may be termed the great National Institution-the Army,-and retaining all the limitations to the descendants of Founders or Natives of provinces which marked our own foundations. Some of these exhibitions have been founded by foreign soldiers for their own countrymen. Thus there are two bearing the name of the O'Gara and the O'Brady, to be held by any Irishmen of good family, one of which is in the gift of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin. We should add that this system is still a living and popular one. Within three years the city of Brünn has founded such an exhibition "for sons of Austrian subjects in Moravia, and by preference in Brünn, in

commemoration of His Majesty's escape from assassination in 1853." We ourselves heard a distinguished Officer express an intention of founding one of these Exhibitions. The comparison with the open Bourses of the Polytechnic is remarkable; but the Austrian appointments to free places seem to be given, like the Prussian, solely as rewards for the service of the parent.

2. The education of young men for Officers is conducted upon the same principles which regulate that for Non-commissioned Officers. The age of admission to a Cadet School is about eleven. The pupils are pledged to the service with the same formalities which we have noticed in the Lower Houses of Education. Between fifteen and sixteen they enter one of the Academies for the Line, the Artillery, the Engineers, or the Marine, and after four years they pass to their respective services.

Thus, unlike the French system, that which is followed in Austria commits the pupil to the Army, and to a Military Education, from an early age, resembling herein the plan of the Accademia Militare of Turin. But an attempt seems to be made to combine general with special teaching. Thus, although even in the two first years (from fifteen to seventeen,) at Wiener Neustadt, there is some introduction of successful practical military teaching, the chief weight is thrown upon mathematics, history, geography, drawing, and French; special military teaching has a greater, though far from an exclusive place, in the two last years. The studies are high, and (as far as we could judge) pursued carefully, and with excellent discipline.

The description we have given of the system pursued in the Schools for Non-commissioned Officers will have shown that there is a constant appeal to emulation. The same is found at Wiener Neustadt. There is a careful system of assigning credits during the whole school period, which itself argues competition. The chief immediate reward, indeed, is the choice of a regiment on leaving the school; but the prospect of entering the Staff School stands in no distant perspective, and this is filled with so many pupils from Wiener Neustadt, that it must be looked upon as the sure reward of a successful Neustädter. There are other inducements of a different character. The discipline being strict, pupils are constantly removed from Wiener Neustadt and the other Academies to the schools for Non-commissioned Officers, and though sometimes allowed to enter the army as Officers, it must always be as juniors to their contemporaries at Wiener Neustadt. We heard instances of great strictness in this matter.

The new course for the Special Arms in Austria is not yet com

pletely in operation. It is at present carried on separately in the Academy of Olmütz for the Artillery, and that of Znaim, in Moravia, for the Engineers. There are 200 pupils in each Academy, and the courses of instruction, which are more special or technical than at Wiener Neustadt, last four years, from the age of fifteen to nineteen. The yearly examinations, the manner in which the marks of the monthly examinations tell on the final one, and the careful classification of the pupils in the order of merit, reminded us of the system of the Polytechnic more than any other school we have seen. And an inspection of the very high credits obtained by the first thirty pupils will prove the diligence with which the studies are pursued. We should add that several pupils of marked talents come from the scientific School Companies. A further fact bears witness to the vigor of the discipline. We have alluded to the dismissal of unpromising subjects from the Austrian Military Schools. In the course of three years, since the changes of 1850, it appears that nearly 100 pupils were removed from Znaim, as not coming up to the standard required for the Engineers by the new regulations.

3. The courses of instruction in the three Academies for Infantry and Cavalry, Artillery, and for Engineers, last for the same time, and run (as it were) parallel to each other. Each is, or is to be, completed by a senior department. The United Course for the Artillery and Engineers is not indeed yet combined in the magnificent buildings begun at Wiener Neustadt; but it is already organized in a provisional state at Zndim for the Engineers, and the plan of instruction drawn up is a solid one. The arrangements for the general Staff School require more remark.

In our report upon Austrian schools we have specially noticed this School as remarkable for its thorough and open competitive character from first to last, and its very sensible plan of study. Admission to it is by competition, open to Officers of all arms: the pupils are not unduly overburdened with work; perhaps, there is even room for one or two more subjects of importance; but what is done seems to be done thoroughly; the Officers are carefully ranked, on leaving the School, according as the abilities they have displayed, may be considered a criterion of their fitness for employment on the General Staff; and in this order they enter the Staff Corps. The consequence is that every Officer knows distinctly, from the time that he first competes for admission until his final examination on leaving, that the order in which he will enter the Staff depends entirely on his own exertions and success at the school. It seemed