knowledge irrespective of the poverty, or wealth, or occupation, or family, or party relations of the parents or guardians, we are forced to believe, in too many instances, to be well founded. To these hasty and injudicious nominations, do we attribute the bitter disappointments of so many individuals and families caused by the numerous failures to pass the almost formal entrance examinations in reading, spelling, penmanship, and elementary operations of arithmetic, or if admitted, to maintain a respectable standing in conduct and studies during their first year's connection with the institution. To this inequality of preparation and maturity of mind on entrance, do we attribute the astonishing disparity of capacity and attainments in the members of the same class, and the very large proportion of all who are admitted, who fail to graduate in very high standing as men of science or military promise.

To this want of preparatory knowledge, maturity of mind, and taste for mathematical and military studies, do we attribute most of the difficulties of internal administration, and class-room instruction. So long as the cadet is a boy, or if full grown in body, a youth with only boyish tastes, and without scholarly and soldierly aspirations,so long as not a few are in the Academy, not because they sought its privileges from an inward and irrepressible impulse to a military eareer, but for the eclat of a military position to be resigned when such position involves sacrifices; so long will the admission of each new class, and especially, the period of encampment be signalized not only by boyish pranks, but by personal outrages on unoffending members of the same corps, which we had supposed to belong to the dark ages of collegiate institutions, when boyish inmates were congregated in large numbers away from the restraints of family discipline; so long will the time, skill, and patience of able professors, which should be devoted to the elucidation of difficult scientific principles and their applications to military art, be engrossed in supplying the defects of an elementary education, which should have been obtained by the cadet as well, or better, at home; so long will the severe mathematical studies, and their special applications, difficult enough to task a well disciplined mind even with the preparation provided in a thorough knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, and geometry,-be irksome in the extreme, and be never mastered to any useful purpose to the army of the United States, by more than one half of the graduates of the Academy;-so long will the country be disappointed in the subsequent career of many graduates, for whose military instruction and training all these appropriate and costly preparations have been made.

In view of these and other considerations the Board of Visitors unanimously recommend that the law and regulations relating to the military academy be so modified as to provide as follows:

I. The Cadet Corps of the army of the United States shall consist of four hundred members, to which each state and territory shall be entitled to a number equal to its representation in the Congress of the United States, and the remainder shall be designated by the President from the country at large, including the District of Columbia; and he shall also fill, in the same way, any vacancy which for any cause may remain unfilled, for three months after the annual examination in each year.

II. No person shall be appointed to the cadet corps until he has been found qualified in the particulars designated by law, after a public examination conducted in such places, at such times, and in such manner as Congress shall prescribe; from which examination no person resident of that portion of the country for which the same is held, shall be excluded, who shall present credentials from the teacher or teachers whom he had last attended, that he is over seventeen, and under twenty-one years of age, of unblemished moral character, and personal habits, of good physical strength and constitution, and has given evidence of aptitude and vigor of mind for the studies and duties of a military career. The examiners shall måke return under oath to the Secretary of War, of the persons so presenting themselves, examined, and found qualified, arranged in the order of merit, specifying the residence and school or schools which they have attended in the two years previous, and the degree of merit exhibited in each subject of the examination. And all appointments to fill vacancies for any state or tèrritory, or for the country at large, shall be made from these returns, and in the order of merit as assigned by the examiners, until the same shall be revised by new regulations of the Department.

III. No person shall be returned to the Secretary of War as a suitable candidate for admission to the Cadet Corps, unless he

1. Shall be over seventeen, and under twenty-one years of age. 2. Shall possess an unblemished moral character and correct personal habits.

3. Shall be in good health, and in no way incapacitated by want of vigor and elasticity of physical constitution for military service.

4. Shall possess vigor and aptitude of mind for the studies of the Military Academy, and shall give evidence, oral and written, of a good English education, which, in view of the wide spread facilities of instruction in public and private schools, might very properly

embrace

(a.) The correct use of the English language, in speaking, reading, and writing the same.

(b.) Penmanship, book-keeping, and elementary drawing.

(c.) The ability to perform with facility and accuracy the various operations of arithmetic.

(d.) The elementary principles of algebra and geometry.

(e.) A thorough knowledge of American geography and history, and the leading features of the Constitution of the United States, and of the State of his residence.

(f) Or so much of the subjects above specified as shall be deemed indispensable to the immediate and profitable attention of the Cadets on their admission to the special studies and occupations of a military school.

5. Shall make a written declaration of his desire to obtain admission to the Cadet Corps for the purpose of qualifying himself for the military service of the United States, which service he assumes from the date of his appointment as cadet, to continue in the same for a period of at least sixteen years-bearing true faith and allegiance to the Constitution and government of the United States, against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and paramount to all obligations to any State government, authority, or constitution.

APPENDIX.

The Appendix to the Report of the Visitors of the Military Academy for 1863, contains the following tables and documents referred to in the Report.

TABLE A.-Showing the condition in life of the parents of the Cadets of the United States Military Academy from 1842 to 1863 inclusive.

TABLE B.-Showing the number of Cadets actually admitted into the United States Military Academy from each State and Territory from its origin March 16th, 1802, to October 19th, 1863.

TABLE C.-Showing the number of Cadets who have graduated at the Military Academy, from its origin to 1863, with the State and Territories where appointed.

TABLE D. Showing the whole number of Cadets admitted and the whole number graduated from each State and Territory from 1802 to October 1863, together with the percentage of those who graduated, and of who failed, out of the whole number admitted from each State, and the number of Cadets to which each State and Territory is now entitled, according to the apportionment of members of Congress, under the Census of 1860. STATEMENT E.-Exhibiting the conditions and examination for the Polytechnic School of France, together with reference to similar regulations for other Military Schools.

TABLES. A. B. and C., were furnished by Capt. Edward C. Boynton, Adjutant of the Military Academy, and were prepared by him originally for his "History of West Point, and the United States Military Academy," published by Van Nostrand, New York, 1863, 408 pages.

TABLE D.

EXHIBITING THE WHOLE NUMBER OF CADETS ADMITTED TO THE MILITARY ACADEMY FROM EACH STATE AND TERRITORY, AND THE WHOLE NUMBER GRADUATED.

STATE AND TERRI-
TORY.

Admitted.

Graduated.

Fail'd to Graduate.

Remain.

From Total. From Total. Per cent. Number. Per cent. No. Per ct.

The Totals in the column of Cadets admitted, graduated, and failed to graduate, for each State and Territory, and for the country at large, are obtained from Tables prepared by Capt. Boynton, in his "History of the United States Military Academy." The per centage of graduates, failures, &c., is calculated from the totals thus obtained. The minute accuracy of the results is slightly effected by the difficulty of assigning the twenty-six Cadets admitted, whose place of residence was unknown, to their respective States. The column of Cadets to which each State and Territory is entitled in the apportionment of members of Congress under the Census of 1860, is official so far as States not involved in rebellion are concerned; the latter is given according to the Census of 1850.

E.

CONDITIONS AND MODES OF ADMISSIONS TO MILITARY SCHOOLS IN EUROPE.

THE POLYTECHNIC SCHOOL OF FRANCE.

The following account of the conditions and modes of examination for entrance to the Polytechnic School, is taken from Barnard's "Military Schools and Education, Part I., France and Prussia."

III. CONDITIONS AND EXAMINATIONS FOR ADMISSION.

The entrance examination is held yearly in August; the most important conditions for admission to it are always inserted in the Moniteur early in the year, and are—

1st. All candidates must be bachelors of science.

2nd. All candidates (unless they have served in the army) must have been as much as sixteen and not more than twenty years old on the 1st of January preceding.

3rd. Privates and non-commissioned officers of the army must be above twenty and under twenty-five years of age; must have served two years, and have certificates of good conduct.

4th. Candidates who propose to claim pecuniary assistance (a bourse or demi-bourse) must present formal proofs of their need of it.

The subjects of the entrance examination are the following:

Arithmetic, including Vulgar and Decimal Fractions, Weights and Measures, Involution and Evolution; Simple Interest.

Geometry of Planes and Solids; application of Geometry to Surveying; Properties of Spherical Triangles.

Algebra, including Quadratic Equations with one unknown quantity, Series and Progressions in general; Binomial Theorem and its applications; Logarithms and their use; on Derived Functions; on the Theory of Equations; on Differences; application of the Theory of Differences to the Numerical Solution of Equations.

Plane and Spherical Trigonometry; Solution of Triangles; application of Trigonometry to Surveying.

Analytical Geometry, including Geometry of two dimensions; Co-ordinates; Equations of the first and second degree, with two variables; Tangents and Asymptotes; on the Ellipse, Hyperbola, and Parabola; Polar Co-ordinates; Curved Lines in general.

Geometry of three dimensions, including the Theory of Projections; Co-ordinates; the Right Line and Plane; Surfaces of the second degree; Conical and Cylindrical Surfaces.

Descriptive Geometry; Problems relative to a Point, Right Line and Plane; Tangent Planes; Intersection of Surfaces.

Mechanics; on the Movement of a Point considered geometrically; on the Effect of Forces applied to points and bodies at rest and moving; on the Mechanical Powers.

Natural Philosophy, including the Equilibrium of Liquids and Gasses; Heat;