viands. After the dinner she said, with tears in her eyes, "The Swiss do not know how happy they indeed are."

On Tuesday, July 12th, the last shot was fired, and on the following day the prizes were distributed. This ceremony took place on the grounds before the gift temple. President Dubs opened with a speech, in which he said: "We are distributing now the prizes to those who have proved themselves the best marksmen. An equal chance is given to all; let all practice with their weapons and emulate their lucky companions. I am convinced that all who have hit the centre of the target will be able to pierce the breast of the enemy, should war be unavoidable." The first prize, the silver basin from Paris, with the 2,500 francs, was won by a manufacturer, Durrer, of Unterwalden; the second, the silver horn from Leipzig, by a farmer named Glogg, of Obermeilen; the third, the twelve silver cups from Bremen, jointly by Professor Dr. Hug, of the University of Zurich, and Mr. Baer, of Männedorf, the best shot in Switzerland, who had hit the target four hundred and eighty-seven times during the festival.

The whole was closed with a serenade, given by the marksmen to President Dubs, the chief magistrate of the confederacy, as well as president of the festival. The next day the remaining guests departed, the garlands and banners disappeared, the people returned to their business, all external show had vanished; but the feeling that Switzerland's sons have again renewed the bonds of their brotherhood. still survives in the breasts of that simple, quiet people—our republican brethren of the Alps.

NOTE.

The following notice of the Swiss Military System, and particularly of its Cantonal Musters, and the Federal Encampment at Thoun is taken from a work published in Belgium in 1858.

The Swiss system educates from infancy, all its male citizens to the duty of a soldier. Each individual must know how to bear the fatigues of a march, to manage arms and to shoot well. Adults from twenty-one to twenty-nine are practised the whole year around, on fixed days in their native place. So far is the duty of each city, town and village.

The Canton has the charge of the more advanced exercises-that is the finishing of the soldiers' education, and the adapting of his knowledge to the practicalities of life. Every year at fixed times, before the first harvest, and again between the last harvest and the vintage, the Canton assembled all adults in active service, and retains them for two or three weeks. They encamp and act in all things as if they were actual troops assembled for war. They make the same maneuvers, are prepared for the inspection of the federal officers who are sent to test the actual knowledge of the soldiers of each Canton. This is for the infantry and cavalry alone.

For the artillery there are permanent camps established in different parts of Switzerland, of which the camp of Biere, (not far from Auboune,) is the most important one.

The crowning of all these exercises is the campaign in the federal camp of "Thoun." These maneuvers take place at irregular times fixed by government, which also designates the number of troops which shall assemble themselves there, and the officer who shall command. This camp is situated five miles from Bern. The little city of Thoun is at the entrance of a valley which is bounded on the south by the first peaks of the Bernese Alps. Here the Swiss army finds a place fitted for all the movements of the plain, the marches and feigned combats on the mountains and the crossing of rivers. The army encamps under tents. The hospitals and such other things as are necessary are in the city of Thoun. The inspection is very severe, the army being tested in every possible way in which it would be possible for them to be tried in actual war. They make long marches, transport the artillery to different places, and in short perform every duty. Distinguished officers from other countries and even King's come to witness this spectacle.

IV. THE STAFF OR WAR SCHOOL AT VIENNA.

[From Report of English Commissioners in 1856.]

THE STAFF SCHOOL (Kriegs-Schule,) in Vienna, was established in 1851, and grew out of the experience of the Hungarian war, although a Staff-Corps had existed for more than a century in the Austrian army, and for many years past all the appointments in it have been made upon an examination, which was, in fact, one of competition. The process was formerly as follows:

An officer desirous of becoming a candidate for a staff appointment, sent in his name to the colonel of his regiment, whose recommendation he was obliged to obtain as a preliminary step. If supplied with this, he began his course of staff study, and was sent for this purpose to some large garrison town as an attaché to the staff. Whilst here he went through, for two years, the course of drawing, writing military memoirs, mapping the country, &c., and for two years more served on active staff duty with different bodies of troops. At the end of these four years a number of the officers thus employed in a particular country were brought together, and examined by the chief of the staff in the country, assisted by a board of officers appointed for the purpose. No actual list was drawn out of the order in which the candidates acquitted themselves, but it was understood that the best were chosen and put upon the general staff. The work upon this was exceedingly laborious; few except officers of real ability were candidates for it, and patronage in it was looked upon with great dislike. On the other hand, studies and reading were not made the first requisite; a ready intelligence and quick eye to make an officer a Colonnen-führer,-leader of a column on a march, were always most valued.

Before describing this school, it may be as well to mention shortly the staff-corps and the corps connected with it.

1. The General Staff of the Austrian Army consists of:

Twelve Colonels.

Twelve Lieutenant-Colonels.
Twenty-four Majors.

Eighty Captains.

The attachés, to the number of eighty,-i. e., those who are expecting appointments, may be subalterns, but they obtain the rank of captain on joining.

The chief of the staff-corps is Field-Marshal Hess.

2. There has been created very lately a separate corps of adjutants or aids-de-camp, who are charged with the administrative duties, such as inspecting the bearing, equipment, carrying on the discipline, &c., of the troops. This consists of

Eleven Generals.

Eighteen Lieutenant-Colonels.
Eighteen Majors.

Fifty-eight First Captains.
Ten Second Captains.

Ten First Lieutenants.

There is no examination for entrance into this corps. Appointments are made by the generals, and we were told that there was some scope for "protection."

3. There is also a smaller corps for the purpose of surveying, called the Corps of Geographical Engineers, connected with the staff, inasmuch as some of the staff officers draw the maps on a large scale, which it is the business of this corps to reduce. It is usually occupied on the Great Surveys of the Empire; at present it is employed on the Survey of the Principalities.

It consists of

One Colonel, called the Director.

Two Lieutenant-Colonels.

Two Majors.

Sixteen Captains.

Sixteen Lieutenants.

Four Sous-Lieutenants.

The staff school consists of thirty pupils taken from all arms of the service, fifteen being received each year, and the course of study lasting two years. It is under the direction of a general and a lieutenant-colonel; and, with few exceptions, such as might occur in the time of war, no appointments on the general staff are to be given to any officers who have not passed through the staff school.

In order to enter the school for the staff corps, an officer must have served at least two years with his regiment, and be unmarried, and above twenty-one and under twenty-six years of age. He may then forward to the chief of the staff, through his colonel, his claim to be admitted as a candidate at the entrance examination. Further inquiry is made, and a good many of the names sent in are struck off the list. Such, we were told, was the case last year when the names sent in were very numerous, but out of these only fortyfive were allowed to compete, and out of these again only fifteen (the regular yearly number) were selected. The competition for entrance into the school is indeed said to have been very active ever

since it was opened. Most of the students are Neustadters; the seven professors were all, with the exception of the professor of the French language, military men, and chiefly officers of artillery, formed in the long studies of the old Bombardier School.

The subjects in which the candidates for admission are examined

are

1. Algebra and Geometry, Plane and Spherical Trigonometry.

2. Geography.

3. History.

4. Arms and Munitions.

5. Field and Permanent Fortification.

6. Pioneering.

7. Rules of Drill and Exercises.

8. Manoeuvring.

9. Military Drawing.

10. Military Composition.

11. French.

12. To be able to speak one of the Austrian national languages, and to

write a good current and legible hand.

The most striking features in the system of this school, both at the entrance and throughout the course, are that it is distinctly competitive, that it admits very young officers, and that while the work is considerable, the subjects for study are not numerous. In these three points it differs considerably from the Prussian Staff School, in which the students are generally older, and the principle of competition is not so fully carried out. In the Austrian school, the students are placed on entering in the order which their entrance examination has just fixed. They are examined once a month during their stay. On leaving the school, their respective places are again determined, and they have a claim for appointments in the staff corps in the exact order in which they were placed on leaving the school.

Their relative places on leaving the school are assigned to them, as we were assured, very carefully, and, after much consultation in every case among the professors; but this is not done by marks, nor by any minute system of testing intellectual qualifications, but an estimate is formed upon the whole work of the two years, both on the studies in the school and the practice in the field,—of the student's comparative fitness, as an officer, for the work of the staff. "We try to estimate the whole man," was the expression used to us, "whether he will make a good Colonnen-führer" (a good man to direct a regiment on a march,) as was said elsewhere. This general estimate was preferred to that of marks, on the ground that the latter might give too much weight to the more appreciable, i. e., simply intellectual qualities.

The students do not at present live within the establishment, but