is likely that much of its energy may be lost by the way. Suppose the meet expiation of an offence in any particular case to be the expulsion of the offender. For every reason it is expedient that this punishment should be administered promptly, and by authorities on the spot. But at this institution the authorities can go no farther than to the length of recommending, and that too with considerable likelihood of having their recommendation overruled. On the will of the Master-General absolutely, it depends whether or not ulterior proceedings shall ensue.

The officer holding at any time the distinguished post of Master-General of H. M. Ordnance is, of course, beyond all suspicion of wilful partiality. But he has no ex officio patent for the abrogation of human frailty. He is, of course, a veteran, with a long list of personal friendships. There are no end of men who can appeal to his recollection of perils undergone in company, and of those accidents by flood and field whose memory is so cogent to conciliate sympathies. Moreover, his interest in the cadet-establishment cannot be supposed to be of that intimate character which is likely to be felt by the officers engaged in carrying out the system of discipline. These are officers in the Ordnance corps dealing with young men who are one day to be their own regimental associates. Thus, the MasterGeneral is not so likely to resist the importunities of friends and former companions-in-arms, concerning whose children there may at any time be question. There will be brought to bear on him, by these friends, importunity in the shape least to be resisted. Should he, in fact, prove manageable, then will the wrath of the Lieutenant-Governor, and of all the resident executive, fall harmless on the head of the offending cadet. He will be maintained in his position in spite of their teeth, and though they may have declared that they would recommend him for removal. One such case is calculated to do great injury to the cause of order and authority. Nothing can be more detrimental to discipline among lads of this age than that they should have any reasons for holding in secondary consideration

those who are placed in immediate authority over them.

Here, then, we point to a constitutional defect, if this place is to be regarded as an educational establishment. We know that theoretically the cadets are not boys, but men. But facts are stubborn things; and the fact is, that a large number of them are not only boys, but very little ones. As a general rule, it is allowed that the regime of a school must be absolute. All the pedagogues are agreed that the full odour of authority must be about the presiding head. Between him and those in statu pupillarii there cannot be allowed the shadow of a controversy. Any discussion at which he is to assist in their presence should be simply with regard to facts on these facts his judgment should be absolute.

And this is only what actually is the state of things at our best public schools. It is well known that the greatest of all modern school-masters, Dr Arnold, insisted on holding office at Rugby on these terms or none; and old Dr Busby walked into school before the king, with his hat on, lest the boys might be led to fancy that on these boards any greater than he could come. That defects would attend the working of the system, even though the ruling power were to superintend personally the carrying out of its provisions, is likely enough. The choice seems to lie between a liability to occasional mistakes, and a constitutional inability to work rightly. At present the relative position of the governed and the governing is too much like that of plaintiff and defendant; the punishment does not follow at once on the offence, and inevitably, but only in the case of a certain third party being persuaded that it is due. This is what we should call the leading constitutional defect of this important institution.

Next, we should point to a similar feature of their organisation for the prosecution of study. According to their system, no master has power to inflict any sort of punishment. In every class-room there is a corporal on duty, on whom devolves the task of maintaining order, and to him the master must appeal, or to the Inspec

tor directly, in any case where he wishes punishment to ensue. The Inspector it is who eventually applies the remedy of actual punishment. But, of course, in any case where a third party has to adjudicate between two others, he must go into the detail of the question, and hold the balance of equity between them. Now, it does seem to be unreasonable to expect that boys are to respect masters in the degree requisite for the maintenance of discipline, when they see them in a condition of powerlessness, and equally with themselves thus citable on questions of conduct during study. They naturally refer all notions of power and dignity to the Inspector, and are tempted to hold the masters in comparatively cheap estimation.

The Inspector occupies a peculiar position. The entire machinery of education is under his control, and the professors and masters under his orders. He not only makes general enactments and receives general reports, but superintends the detail of daily performance. His duty requires him to attend frequently in the rooms where instruction is in process; and it is open to him to make any observations he pleases on what he sees and hears; in short, to find fault freely. It is not only in one particular or another that he has this superprofessorial privilege, but in every branch of theory and practice, of science and art. He equally speaks ex cathedra whether the subject be mathematics, or languages, or mixed science, or drawing. To him examination papers are submitted before being eventually issued; and in some cases the very work of the cadets in answer to those papers, on which the judgment of the examiners is founded; and he may, if he please, question or modify their decisions.

Now, considering that these masters are, or ought to be, the best of their kind-not neophytes, but men of whom many have won reputation in their separate departments, and devoted their lives to the work of advancement in their respective walks -it is certain that the individual who is to keep them, all and each, to their bearings in this style, should be a wonderful person. We will even suppose that such a Crichton has been

hit on for the nonce. The supposition is sufficiently improbable, even though we allow free choice from among the notables of the age. Under the actual restriction it is even more improbable. He must needs be a colonel from one of the two Ordnance corps, which have the privilege of supplying the office in rotation. Such an officer is likely to be removed by a long interval of service from his student days. Still, we will suppose such a one to have been found; one qualified-i. e., by attainments-to exercise this discrimination, and by moral superiority to do so inoffensively. Can we, with any show of reason, expect that the supply of such persons will be continuous? Is it not absolutely certain that the vast majority of inspectors will be men unqualified for the fulfilment of what is required? And is it not unwise to maintain a demand which in the very nature of things must lack a supply? Besides this, we apprehend that the most competent of men could not exercise the power of interfering with the detail of education thus extensively and minutely, without the evil effects to which we have alluded.

These strictures are liable to be met with the assertion that the regulations in question are matters of necessity. As a military institution, the place must be under control of military authorities: as, being gentlemen cadets, the pupils cannot be subject to discipline except by authority of an officer.

This necessity, which will be admitted by all who are conversant with military matters, seems to indicate the available remedy. If the mountain won't come to Mahomet, let Mahomet go to the mountain. If the machinery and the material don't suit, and you cannot alter the machinery, bring other grist to your mill; in one word, alter the character, that is, the age, of the cadets. At present we have anomaly and confusion. Boys are treated as men, because their treatment as cadets begins at too early a stage. It is, we take it, eminently a case to illustrate the impolicy of beginning with specialities before the general foundation has been laid. We will grant that a company of gentlemen cadets is not to be dealt

with as though they were schoolboys; but our inference from that premiss would be, not that it is incumbent on us to leave things as they are, but that we are bound in common sense to make cadets of them somewhat later in the day. The age at which they now generally enter the practical class, or even the regiment, might be made the age of entering on their cadetship. They would then be far more likely to appreciate the scientific and professional advantages provided for their benefit. They would be likely to bring to the lectures of their professors minds properly cultivated by previous education, and might safely devote the requisite space to technicalities without danger-that is to say, of intellectual cramping. And more than all this, they would be really young men, and not boys-really fit for the treatment assigned to them.

There can be no doubt that in such a change would be involved no risk of lowering the actual standard of qualification. It is certain that the amount of preliminary knowledge would be at the discretion of the Master-General. Wherever he might affix his mark, up to that mark would candidates in abundance be found to come prepared.

Indeed, it does not appear to be the fashion to deny that the likely effect of such a change of system would be to improve the education of the young officers. The supposed advantage of taking them early in the day has respect to their moral training. They are brought under the surveillance of those who are to be regimentally as sociated with them, and within range of military influences. The service itself prepares them for her future behests.

Unfortunately, as we have already said, this bringing is premature. The means are good, but there is a want of congruity between them and the persons for whose benefit they are set in action: therefore it is that the measure of actual efficacy falls below the point which it might be made to attain.

It is undeniable that the profit to the service must be great, of having a place of effectual moral training; where young men may be not only

VOL. LXXVI.-NO. CCCCLXX.

taught all necessary knowledge, but encouraged so to think and feel as becomes soldiers. It would be a great boon to have a place whence they could draw their young officers, with every reasonable expectation of finding them the kind of men needed. But no place could answer this purpose, save one wherein discipline should be maintained far more sternly than comports with the treatment of the young. The working of such an institution is at once contravened if allowances are to be made, which, in the case of lads, it would be inhuman not to make.

One great use of such a probationary institution appears to be, that means may be afforded of stopping in time the course of those who present primâ facie disqualifications for the service. So far as disqualification physical is concerned, the end is subserved as things stand. A defect in bone or muscle is rigorously scrutinised, and by the regulations is held to afford sufficient cause for stopping the candidate at once. Such an objection is held to be insuperable, and cannot be compensated for by any amount of attainments. It may be that in the midst of his course some accident may disqualify the cadet physically. If so it be, he must be withdrawn from the Company, notwithstanding the argument ad misericordiam. However much he may be to be pitied, and however clear from blame, go he must, and infallibly does.

Now, surely there is a state of moral disqualification for military service. The idiosyncrasy of an individual may be such as to unfit him for the profession of arms. Without any impugnment of a young man's general excellencies, we may pronounce him an unlikely subject for military training. He may be well enough fitted to serve the State in a civil capacity, and yet be such a one as to justify us in declaring that his vocation is not to arms. Such a one there should be the power of stopping at once, that he may give place to some one among the hundreds of those who are eager and qualified. If this law were once thoroughly understood, and rigorously enforced, there would be nothing invidious in

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its operation; and the whole course of moral training at the place would receive a vigorous impulse, from the mere consciousness of living under such a law of probation.

Neither need this degenerate into a pretence for avoiding the labour of rearing troublesome subjects-it need not interfere with the proper operation of punishment. The appliances of discipline would be discontinued in the cases of those only who should appear to present no points of application. It would be incumbent on the authorities to try their remedial de vices in the first instance, and to proceed to judgment only when characteristic defects were made out to be radical and incurable. But where this is clearly made out to be the case, surely it is far better to remove the individual at once, than to wait for some specific offence against the laws and regulations: surely it is better than to send men into the army of whom it may safely be predicated, that they will never be worth their salt as officers. At least we are certain that such must come to be practically the rule of the place, if it is fully to answer the purposes for which it is designed. It must be regarded practically as a weeding-place for the service, expressly instituted for the diminution of the numbers of what are technically termed "Queen's Hard Bargains."

Of course a distinct enunciation of such intention on the part of the authorities would bring about a change in the spirit of the present generation of cadets. It is impossible to say what would be the salutary effect of their being brought to understand that they were in this sense on their probation; that they must not only keep clear of gross breaches of the regulations, but so conform themselves to discipline as to warrant the idea that they might be disciplined to good purpose. They would have to show cause why a fitness for military trust should be predicated of them. At present they exhibit far too decided a tendency to believe that the money paid for their expenses at the institution gives them a sort of right to a commission - a right, in fact, nearly tantamount to that acquired by purchasing into the Line.

Now the fact is, that, from the moment of their becoming subject to martial law, they, like all others under the operation of that law, forego the privilege of arguing on abstract principles. They are thenceforward to be used for the good of the service: in subservience to that good, to be discharged if necessary.

This is undoubtedly what may be taken to be the due complexion of a great military training establishment. But of course the persons subject to this discipline ought to be able to appreciate its nature. This, however, it is too much to expect that boys of fourteen or fifteen will be able to do;besides which, at that time of life the dispositions are so little fixed that it is difficult to say how a boy is likely to turn out. It would be, at all events, rash to pronounce the judgment with so much confidence as might justify the ulterior proceedings in question.

But all objections would be obviated, and the present system would be consistent, and work admirably, if the age of the cadet were to be advanced by some four years or so― if the line were to be drawn somewhere between eighteen and nineteen, or thereabouts. A military system, organised for purposes of special instruction, would be perfectly homogeneous with such subjects. They would come prepared with theoretical knowledge, and be assisted by the professors in its application. It is presumed that, with pupils of this standing, a year's practical instruction in the arsenal would do as much as is at present effected during the long course of training to which they are liable,-as much, that is to say, in respects purely professional; in other respects more. In the supposed case, the staff of professors and masters might remain as at present, but the mode of imparting instruction would naturally be by lecture, instead of by the present mode of attendance, which involves so great an absorption of time on theoretical branches. We believe that few persons conversant with the subject of artillery and engineer requirements will be found to doubt that a single year of such a cadetship would be amply sufficient for its purpose.

There would also be about such an arrangement this great advantage: A depôt would be maintained of officers ready for immediate service. From such a cadet company any number of artillery officers might be drawn, fit to join the regiment at once. In fact, we should have en permanence a cadet company of the standing and efficiency of the present senior class at the arsenal. This is no slight matter, as may be seen by the light of recent occurrences. It is quite likely that a sudden emergency may at some time arise, when a reinforcement of officers may be required. Whence are they to come? The average age of cadets is so juvenile that it must take years to bring them up to the mark of actual serviceability. Meanwhile, how is the demand for officers to be satisfied? It must either be left unsatisfied, or the same sort of remedy be sought to which the East India Company had recourse some few years since for the supply of their artillery necessities-viz., that of examining cadets for direct admission. This would be contrary to the desire of the regiment, and so far a measure to be deprecated. But if it is to be put out of the question, there must be provided some other means of immediate supply.

Very little need be said about the course of instruction prescribed to the young officer on first joining the regiment, because it is exactly of that kind which common sense points out as appropriate. The regulation respecting this regimental course is of recent date; and all deductions from the few years' experience that is citeable are most favourable. They usually remain under the charge of the superintending captain for the space of six months-till such time, at any rate, as he reports them duly qualified for regimental duty. This is taking the average run of things: under the pressure of actual war this period is apt to be curtailed. The course of study pursued by the young men comprises military history and tactics, and the law of courtsmartial. They have also to attend classes in French and German. sides this, they have to practise the making of military reconnaissances on a larger scale than is feasible dur

Be

ing cadetship-being mounted, and proceeding over extensive tracts of country. Moreover, each of the young officers is expected to pursue a course of reading, of which he has to give account to the officer in direction of their studies. It is the duty of this officer to make periodically a report to the adjutant-general of artillery, of each individual thus under his care. In these reports

are recorded confidential notes of individual character and talent, and by them are furnished data for the formation of a professional estimate of the officers individually. Such information it is of course highly important that the authorities should have at command.

This is the last stage of actual pupilage. Thenceforth the officer is not tied down to any particular course of study. Admirable provision, however, has been made for the purpose of affording to him assistancein any walk of science which he may wish to pursue. Indeed, when we speak of the Royal Artillery Institution, we pass beyond the bounds of what is regimental, and speak of what is calculated to act in the wide sense as a public benefit. It is the newest in origin (at least on its present footing), but perhaps the richest in promise of all our scientific institutions. It is evident that a regiment like the Royal Artillery is, in virtue of its very constitution, admirably adapted to bring about great results in the field of investigation. It consists of a large number of carefully educated men-a number about equal to that of some fourteen or fifteen ordinary regiments-scattered throughout the world, and yet held together by the centripetal force of regimental engagements. They have all headquarters at one common place, and of necessity have opportunities of meeting each other at Woolwich, and comparing notes. In the case of other societies, travelling has to be paid for, and personal investigation secured, not only at considerable cost, but with great difficulty-a difficulty and expense which are both rendered needless in the case of the Royal Artillery Institution. The normal condition of the constituent body is that of a large