a plethoric white horse, would fume and
swear to no purpose whatever. The Rifles
were the Rifles. They were capital shots,
but of the parade march they invariably made
a mess; we were, as Major Holleben
graphically described us, "capital stragglers."

Field manoeuvres in fine weather—marching
out, dispersing through a plantation, dodging
behind trees, lying down behind hedges or
in dry ditches, and letting fly at all sorts of
imaginary foes; scrambling, leaping, creeping,
advancing and retreating to the deep ringing
sounds of the bugle. Rifle practice in winter
and bad weather—a short parade on Sunday
mornings and a merry careless life all the
week through—these were, indeed, happy
days. The discipline was pretty strict; but
a soldier who knows his duty and does it,
may laugh at the provost. Our scrapes (for
we did get into scrapes) were confined to
rows with the students from the
neighbouring university of Giessen; and I verily
believe the officers liked our pugnacity; for,
although there were many inquiries after us,
nothing ever came of them. Now and then
some contumacious rogue was sent into arrest;
for contradicting an officer: or some careless
fellow was punished for want of cleanliness
or of punctuality; but, on the whole, punishments
were rare in this, the most impudent
and jaunty corps in His Majesty's service.
What we disliked most was the school. We ,
thought it a pedantic affair to be compelled
to sit on forms like boys; while the officers,
by turns, lectured and examined us on the
structure and capabilities of the rifle, the
classes and meanings of signals, on guard
duty, skirmishing, and the whole theory of
a soldier's education. But those were worst
off who had been lazy at school in their native
villages. Little mercy was shown to bad
readers and writers; they were pent up in a
school-room by themselves with a sergeant
for a schoolmaster, and continual threats of
"three day's middle arrest" to quicken their
understandings. The regimental school-
system, however, produces good, intelligent
soldiers. It is not too much to say that not
one English officer in ten knows as much of
the theory of his profession as every private
soldier in Prussia is obliged to learn.

If I had not before been a good patriot
and an admirer of our military system, my
three years' servitude would have made me one.
I had but to compare the full-blown soldier
in his second year, with the squads of unmannerly,
ungainly, awkward, sullen recruits which
came to us, in due course, every year. These
peasant boys, with dirty faces and dirtier
hands, who knew neither how to dress
properly nor to keep themselves clean when
dressed, were, by a few months service,
converted into wholesome, healthy-looking, handy
soldiers. They had their rustic conceit
completely taken out of them; and, instead of it,
they had some pride and dignity. They were
proud of their corps and their country, of
their smart uniforms and the formidable
weapon which was slung to their side. They
seemed to have obtained a freer use of their
limbs; they looked, talked, and acted
differently; and, above all, they were trained to
punctuality and to a proper division of time.

The great advantage of the Prussian military
system, as I take it, is;—that imposing military
duty on all the male subjects of the State,
there is in that duty nothing lowering. The
King's blue coat is the common lot of all men.
No able-bodied man is exempted, unless he
be the only son of a widow. No man, be he
ever so rich, can purchase his freedom or a
substitute, because each man has to do service
for himself. Luck will not avail a man, for
there is no ballot; there is no picking and
choosing, no leaving that one or taking that
one; it is a tax which every one must pay
with his body and his time. It is hard in a
few exceptional cases; but, surrounded as we
are by bad neighbours, and compelled to keep
up a large standing army, the Prussian can
better afford to learn the duty of a soldier
than to pay for an artificial army, raised by
bounties and kept at great expense.

The military education of the Prussian
does, indeed, interfere with his usual
avocations, at least to some extent. But those
whose time is more precious to them than it
is to the mass of people—young men of liberal
education, who have their way to make in the
world, have very liberal provisions made to
them by the military law. If they can prove
their liberal education by passing an
examination in history, geography, mathematics,
and languages, and if they are wealthy
enough to provide their own outfit, and pay
their own expenses while in the King's service,
the time of their soldiering is limited to one
year only, and this year they may take at
their liking, between the ages of seventeen and
twenty-five. In service, they are distinguished
by a mark on their shoulders; out of service,
they wear uniforms which strongly resemble
those worn by officers; they need not live in
the barracks, and they are at liberty to walk
out, after the "retraite" has compelled all
other soldiers to go home. Most of the
Prussian Universities have garrisons, and the
students—who usually pass from three to five
years at these upper schools—devote one year
to their military education, while they still
attend lectures and pursue their studies, just
as the other students do. The only difference
is, that these volunteers must not wear the
fantastic coats and hats in which the German
student delights. They wear the King's coat
in the lecture-room as well as in the barrack-
yard, in the fencing gallery, and in the riding-
school.

After the volunteer has served his twelve-
month, he must go through an examination
on military matters. If he pass that
examination, he is entitled to a lieutenancy of
the Landwehr; if the examination shows that
he has been too idle, or too dull to learn, his