regiment; and to be a general of brigade whilst
yet in the prime of life."

"Now tell me," said I, "has not private
interest something to do with this system of
promotion?"

"I will not deny," said my friend, "that in
the French army an officer who has interest gets
on better than an officer who has not; but the
influence of 'interest' upon promotion is every
day getting less. For instance, supposing two
officers of equal merit in the same regiment,
the one having a friend at the War Office,
tho other not having this advantage, I have
no hesitation in saying that he with interest
would win the race of promotion before
his companion. But day by day the emperor
is making all officers' and non-commissioned
officers' promotion to depend entirely
upon the number and quality of the marks he
bears opposite his name in the books of the
regiment, or rather in his own register. These
marks he may add to or diminish any day by
his own conduct, whether for good or bad,
or by his own aptitude or otherwise for the
service. Moreover, nothing is done in secret.
The annual report of each officer's character
and improvement is made by the inspecting
general, who at his yearly visitation sees
each officer alone, the only other person
present being the chief of the general's staff, who
is always an officer of the staff corps with
the rank of colonel. It is most unlikely that
either of these gentlemen should be interested
in the promotion of any officers who come before
them in the course of duty. True, now
and then we hear of an officer whose promotion
is very quick, and who is therefore believed—
often with good reason—to have some influential
friend in high places, but this is the exception,
not the rule, and it is very rare indeed
either to hear officers grumble because they have
not been promoted, or to meet with officers who
are discontented at the promotion of any
particular individual of their regiment."

"But," said I, " tell me how it is that your
soldiers and non-commissioned officers come to
be so certain of their promotion? What is the
usual routine in advancing these gentlemen to
the higher ranks?"

"When," replied my friend, "a young man
joins a regiment as private soldier, the first
thing he must do is to learn his duty as a soldier.
In the infantry this will take him about twelve
months; in the cavalry nearly two years.
During this time he is called a ' young
soldier,' and is obliged—he has no option—
to attend for three hours every day one or
other of the two regimental schools. In the
first of these he is taught the mere elements of
education, reading, writing, and the first rules
of arithmetic. Should the recruit be a mere
peasant, or should his previous teaching have
been very defective, he must go to this school.
But if it is found that he knows his own Ianguage
well, and has a fair knowledge of figures,
sent to the upper school, where he is taught the
higher branches of mathematics, and the theoretical
part of his profession—such as the rules
of outpost duty; the principles of forming field
defences; the mode of providing for a party of
men he may command in an enemy's country;
the rules, regulations, orders, and practice of
the French army, as well as the rewards he may
gain, and the punishments to which he may be
liable, if brought before a military tribunal.*

* The training of a French soldier is described in
detail, by a retired non-commissioned officer of the
French army, in volume viii., pages 115-469, of this
journal.

"Once a sergeant," continued my friend,
"the promotion to be sub-lieutenant depends
very much upon circumstances. If the regiment
be on service, and a sergeant have a chance of
distinguishing himself, he is sure of promotion
at once. Moreover, vacancies that happen
in the field—whether from sickness or from
deaths in battle—are pretty certain to be filled
up from the non-commissioned officers of the
corps. A sergeant who knows his duties well,
is considered fully eligible for the commissioned
ranks of the army, and those who do not
obtain the promotion in their own or some other
regiment, are pretty certain to be provided for
in the staff of garrison towns, in the pay,
clothing, or some other department of the army. But
in our army no man of fair education, good
conduct, smartness as a soldier, and a certain
amount of application, need fear obtaining promotion
if he enlist. Among our highest officers
—marshals, generals of division, and of brigade—
rather more than one-half; and among
our colonels and lieutenant-colonels, nearly two-
thirds; have, in their day, either shouldered
muskets as foot soldiers in the ranks, or
cleaned horses as private dragoons. Among
the orderly officers attached to the household of
the emperor, fully one-half have in their day
passed through the barrack-room."

My friend took me next day to the barracks,
where three or four candidates for the rank of
corporal were being examined. The examiners
were the colonel, the lieutenant-colonel, a major,
and three captains of the regiment. The young
men under examination were asked how the
soldiers' soup—the chief ingredient of French
soldiers' dinners—ought to be prepared? In their
replies there was a slight difference, which the old
colonel—who had himself risen from the ranks—
at once corrected; giving due praise to the soldier
who had answered most correctly, and who,
for other reasons, was finally declared to be the
successful candidate. The officers of the
regiment then, one and all, went up to shake hands
with him, and congratulate him upon his having
gained his first step. I was told that he was
the son of a tradesman at Marseilles, and that
the soldier who had come off second, was the
son of a man of title and nephew of a marshal
of France.

Since I returned to England, I have often
thought it would be a great advantage if some
such system of promotion could be introduced
into our own service. In these days no man,
unless he is either in the lowest state of poverty,