through a complete course of military
instruction, and then, after another examination,
passes out of college a sub-lieutenant, and
is appointed to either cavalry or infantry,
according to the arm of the service for which his
superiors believe him to be best qualified. The
only other road which leads to a commission is
the barrack-room. A young man who has not
interest enough to get into St. Cyr, or who
may have been there, and failed iu his final
examination, enlists as what is called in France
a volunteer; that is, he enters the army of his
own free will, and not as a conscript. The
novitiate and the trials he has to go through
are severe, for he is treated as any other
recruit might be. He has, however, one
advantage; the men of his company or squadron
are sure to treat him with civility, and among
them he is pretty sure to find some belonging
to his own rank in life. There are schools
and schoolmasters attached to his regiment,
in which he may greatly improve his education.
Once he has obtained the rank of corporal—- for
which a most difficult examination has to be
passed—- he is allowed, if he wish, to go to the
college at St. Cyr: provided always that he can
pass the requisite ordeal for matriculation.
Should he do so, he may qualify in two years
for the rank of sub-lieutenant, and, if he can
get through the passing-out examination, he
leaves college as an officer. Should he not wish,
or not feel qualified, to go to college, he can
remain with his corps, and work his way from
corporal to sergeant, from sergeant to sergeant-
major (corresponding with our colour-sergeants
or troop sergeant-majors), and from sergeant-
major to adjutant. There is one adjutant to
each battalion of infantry, and one to every
two squadrons of cavalry, corresponding in rank
to our regimental sergeant-majors.

In all these various steps he has examinations
to pass, but at the end of them his commission
as sub-lieutenant is sure. After he has got
this step, his promotion, and that of his brother-
officers who have entered the corps as youths
from the military college, work in exactly
the same way. Two-thirds of all nominations
to the grades higher than sub-lieutenant,
are by selection, and one-third by
seniority. The French military authorities hold,
and not without reason as it seems to me, that if
all promotion were by seniority—- as is the case
in our artillery, engineers, marines, and Indian
army—- it would be unfair to the state, as
government would be obliged to take the oldest
officer for a command, no matter what his
qualifications might be; on the other hand, they hold
it but just that seniority should have certain
rights, and therefore every officer can by
seniority alone work his way to the rank of
captain, but no further. In France, all the
majors—- or chefs d'escadrons, as they are called
in the French cavalry—- command battalions or
squadrons, over which they have entire control,
and for such responsible posts it is thought that
officers ought to be selected, as in our navy
post-captains and commanders are selected.
How exceedingly well the system works we
all know; for, as I hope to show in a future
paper, there is no such good organisation as in
a French regiment, unless it be in an English
man-of-war. From among the captains the
majors are selected; from the majors, the
lieutenant-colonels; from the lieutenant-colonels,
the colonels; and the result is that seldom
or never does the military machinery get out of
repair, and that the eternal patchwork which
we see in our own army—- that making of new
rules and framing of fresh military " warrants,"
which appear only to be issued in order that
they may be quickly repealed in a few weeks
and others issued, and which are so common
in our service that our commanding officers
and adjutants get utterly bewildered—- is quite
unknown among the French. In the French
army there is a rule for everything, and
everything is ruled. Everybody knows his
place and his duties; although the regulations
are most minute, they are not intricate, so
every officer, non-commissioned officer, and
soldier, is required to have a perfect and
thorough knowledge of them. Without such
knowledge, no student at the military college
can hope to be made sub- lieutenant, and no
private soldier can be promoted to be corporal.
The consequences are, that go where he will, or
be placed under any circumstances that can be
imagined, the French soldier is always at home,
and always knows what to do, and how to
do it.

I never was more struck with flie immense
difference that exists in this respect between
the armies of the two countries, than by chance
in about the year 1857 or 1858. I happened
to be in Alexandria when a small party of
English soldiers—- about thirty—- under the command
of an officer, arrived there on their way to India.
They had literally nothing to do in the way of
getting themselves transported over to Suez,
for, as one of the transit officials told me, the
correspondence respecting the advent of this
little body of men—- that is, the letters,
reports, orders, counter-orders, and what not,
received from England about them—- would
have filled a good-sized wheelbarrow. From
the admiral at Malta, from the War Office in
London, from the adjutant-general and quarter-
master-general in London, from like officials at
Calcutta, from consuls, vice-consuls, and consuls-
general, heaps of large official letters were
received about these men. From the moment the
steamer conveying them was signalled as entering
Alexandria, until they were safely put on
board the steamer at Suez—- a period of about
forty-eight hours—- everything that they could
possibly want—- to eat, to drink, or to wear—-
was provided for these men, even to the very
carriage of their great-coats, to say nothing of
boxes. And yet a more helpless—- hopelessly
helpless—- set of fellows, from the officer down
to the youngest soldier, it never was my lot to
see in any part of the world. They went about
Alexandria in a kind of bewildered maze, doing
exactly what they ought not to have done, and