custodians are appointed to keep them safely and in good condition when not in actual use. The military instructors are officers of the federal military service, and well educated in the theory and art of war. The time devoted to military studies and training in manual exercises varies with the seasons and in the various cantons. During the summer about three halfdays per week, (about fifteen hours per week) is the average time. There is also an occasional field-day, when all muster together occupying a spacious parade-ground. The whole population of parents and friends, as well as the cantonal authorities, turn out for a general holiday, to witness the nascent valor and heroism of the Republic.

It may be claimed that republican Switzerland-surrounded as she is by great military empires, and monarchies, is under great necessities to devlope her national defences, and that we are not bound by the same obligations. We may not find a fighting neighbor at hand, but ere we are yet a century old, we have found that for want probably of such an accommodation we must needs turn to and fight each other.

The United States Military Academy, at West Point, than which no better is to be found in any country, is to a certain extent a check upon this tendency and its natural results, but it is our only national military educational institution, and its graduates are not sufficient to officer our insignificant little regular army of 25,000 men, and can never furnish the officers necessary to instruct and fit for war, the army necessary to employ in any conflict. We do not want and should not have a large standing army, but we do want and must have men capable of assuming the duties of an officer in times of emergencies. It requires no critical study of history to teach us that even the enormous standing armies of Europe are largely predicated upon the necessity of having officers sufficiently numerous and competent to instruct and direct the entire available part of the arms-bearing population. West Point has done all that her warmest friends could wish for her; has in fact, been to this nation, what Napoleon claimed for his favorite Polytechnic school, "the hen that laid him golden eggs.' "Yet the few hundred of her élèves, scattered from Florida to Alaska, are but a small guard in time of great danger, no matter how efficient they may be, and recourse must be had to our great national defence, the militia. Supposed of course to be what the word implies, a body of armed citizens, trained to military duty, who may be called out in certain cases, but may not be kept on service, like standing armies, in time of peace. Some of you, no doubt, have seen this armed body of trained citizens, and can judge how nearly facts comply with theory. In fact we all know that there is little or no training, and less knowledge of military matters. Yet the militia of the United States, is estimated to number some 4,000,000 of able-bodied men, liable to be called out for duty under the laws of the different States.

With only here and there an organized company or regiment, without military teaching, with almost all of the graduates of our military academy absorbed by our regular army, where then are we to find men with any of the qualifications of the soldier to officer this vast army and render it efficient? requiring, if properly organized, more than 100,000 officers. It is at once remembered that we at present have in our midst hundreds of thousands of veteran soldiers. Ay! but how long shall we have these brave men who have learned to trace the lines of battle's array, on not a few stricken

fields? Another generation will find but their graves and the proud record of their deeds, and others must stand ready to take their swords and when called, to lead as nobly and as truly.

Where then are we to find the men necessary to fill their places in the future? We claim, and justly, that the graduates of our Universities and Colleges will be among the most influential of their fellow-citizens, under all circumstances where law and order is to be maintained, civilization advanced, and our common country preserved to us and our descendants. If then, this claim be a true one, it is of them that will be required military service and knowledge in time of need, and to fit them for their duties, it becomes necessary to fit them to a greater or less extent for military command. It has been before stated that this cannot well be done in the public schools; that our National Academy is entirely inadequate. The citizen after arriving at man's estate and his duties has not the time to devote to acquiring this necessary military knowledge. Consequently we are forced to the conclusion that this absolutely essential part of his education must be acquired in our Universities and Colleges, and we assert that it can there be obtained, for the very simple reason that "what has been done, can be done again." It has been found more or less difficult to introduce a military department into a purely civic institution in this country, and however comprehensively it may be organized, to obtain any degree of success it must always remain subservient to, and not unduly interfere with, the primary ends to be obtained by such institutions.

The course of study in such institutions must of course allow plenty of time for out-door exercise. and it is an absolute necessity for the best interests of the student that he make good use of this time and for the purpose set apart. The strong and healthy (those who apparently need it least) will do so willingly, while others who need physical exercise most, will only take it under compulsion, even where the most complete gymnasiums are provided.

Generally in our Universities and Colleges, there can be no system of guard duty, barrack regulations, &c., &c., and five hours per week is about the maximum that can be called for, for drill purposes, &c,-five drills of an hour's duration each per week—and during a winter term five hours per week for study and recitation-hence, in a college year of thirty-eight weeks there would be required for military exercises 190 hours.

Yet, small as this time seems and actually is, it is wonderful what progress intelligent young men can and do make under competent instructors. These instructors, and the necessary arms and accoutrements being furnished by Government, a cheap and efficacious method is afforded of diffusing a practical military education.

But in a thorough course of military training, we arrive at benefits of the utmost importance, and of universal and life-long utility to the student. It is a fact which must be acknowledged by all, that, with all the excellencies of our collegiate education, there has generally been a marked neglect of anything like a systematic training of the physical powers.

The growth of the intellectual nature has been stimulated and fostered, while the bodily powers have been left without care. until the effect upon both has become everywhere apparent to the observing. Happily the note of warning has been raised, and the public mind turned to the vital

importance of returning in our processes of education to the precepts and practices of the wisest educators of all ages, and of cultivating with equal care both mind and body, and thus securing a higher and nobler manhood. Now, it is believed that no other system of physical training affords for this end advantages superior to the military drill. It gives an erect attitude, and expands the chest giving the lungs free play, an elastic, vigorous, and manly carriage, and above all, the most perfect command of the will over the bodily powers. Moreover, it forms habits of obedience the most perfect and exact, and thus greatly aids in giving the moral nature its rightful and just control. But it is useless to dwell further upon the need of such an education. As a resource in times of imminent peril from domestic as well as foreign foes, the events through which our country has passed within the first century of her existence, proclaim this need with a voice too plain to be misunderstood, and too potent to be disregarded. There are not many here to-day who cannot well remember how, but a few years ago, we were so fearfully startled from a false security which we fondly dreamed would last forever, and taught at terrible cost the lesson that "in time of peace we must prepare for war.” All history teaches us that a country, to be preserved to its people, must be defended by them, but the defence of our country against a foe does not constitute the only motive for a more thorough study and understanding of military science and tactics. The safety of this Republic depends as much upon equality in the use of arms among its citizens, as upon the equality of our boasted rights; nothing can be more dangerous in such a government as ours than to have a knowledge of the military art confined to a part of the people, as sooner or later that part would govern. The effect of discipline possessed by a few, to control numbers without, is to be seen in all despotic governments of modern as well as ancient times. Another important consideration, urging the diffusion of military spirit and knowledge among our citizens is, the counterpoise it will afford to that inordinate desire for the "Almighty Dollar" (even though it be a paper one) which seems to pervade the whole nation, beginning with the habits of luxury, manners, and principles, highly unfavorable to the good of our Republican institutions, and to the development of patriotic sentiments and practices.

Secretary of War Knox, in his report to President Washington but sketches an often-repeated portion of history, when he says that it is the introduction of vice and corruption of manners in the mass of the people that renders a standing army necessary. It is when the public spirit is despised, and avarice, indolence, and effeminacy of manners predominate, and prevent the establishment of institutions which would elevate the minds of the youth in the paths of virtue, honor, and patriotism, that a standing army is formed and riveted forever." So true is this principle, that there is probably no instance in history, of a nation losing its liberties when the military spirit of the people did not decline in the same proportion that corruption of manners advanced. Nor was any free government ever overturned by an internal convulsion, until the destruction of that spirit had been first produced in the body of the people.

Turn to the condition of Rome when her army dared revolt, and with the power of the sword, substitute for its free institutions the arbitrary will of a dictator; less than a single century before the successful usurpation of the Cæsar, the revolt of an army, could have produced no such consequences.

But the habits of the people had been changed; no longer in every Roman citizen was to be found a trained and practiced soldier; the art of war was cultivated, indeed, with ardor by a martial nobility, and no period had been more prolific of great generals; at no time had the discipline of the legions been so perfect; but they were no longer filled by the Roman citizen. The military had become a distinct profession, composed of men, who, in the habits of war and pillage, had forgotten the sacred obligations of the citizen, and who were ever as ready, upon the suggestion of their leader, to turn their arms against the liberties of their country, as against her enemies. As in every age then, and in every country, the same causes will ever produce the same effects; the palladium of American liberty must be the diffusion of military spirit, discipline, and knowledge through the whole body of the people.

The ancient republics from which we have drawn many of the choicest maxims upon which to found our civil institutions, will furnish also a most perfect model for our system of national military education. The whole secret of ancient military glory; the foundation of that wonderful combination of military skill and exalted valor which enabled the petty republic of Athens to resist the mighty torrent of Persian invasion, which formed the walls of Sparta, and conducted the Roman legions (influenced, indeed, by unhallowed motives) to the conquest of the world, will be found in the military education of their youth.

We must believe most firmly in the absolute necessity for the wide dissemination of military instruction, that it is possible to secure efficiency, without sacrificing economy; and that it can only be well done by firmly rooting it in our system of popular education. Just so much as may be accomplished. by our youth at school, will be spared from their military training after they have become citizens. Rudimentary military instruction, and practice in the manual, the school of the soldier, company, &c., can be introduced into all of our Universities and Colleges, and in time, into many of our common schools. It will rescue many an hour from unmeaning play, from weariness and mental dullness, and many will be aided, by the cheerful impulse of the bodily health and mental tone, to the really successful exertions of the young student.

We shall have brighter scholars, better boys, healthier and manlier sons, and steadier and more dutiful and reliable young citizens by the process, and shall have prepared them to begin the battle of their life, already well grounded, and well disciplined in much useful knowledge which they could hardly expect to acquire in after life.

We have, or ought to have, ever before us the records of the daring and wisdom of the past, and of the more recent events whose glories awaken for us still deeper emotions. We feel, and ought to feel, for the achievements of the founders and preservers of our country, the reverent love of children for their ancestors. We should cherish the memories of their sacrifices, in the inner chamber of our hearts, only less close to the very core than religious devotion to the Father of the Universe.

They have set for us the example of duty, and have left to us the wisdom of their experience and advice. Every age has its calls to duty, and the obligations of to-day and to-morrow are as sacred as the memories of any yesterday.

The work which even the present generation has had to do will endear it to future times with a regard little less earnest than the popular veneration for the founders of our Republic, but alike in both cases, at what a terrible cost. The muttering thunders of coming war, found us almost wholly unprepared, except in the robust manhood and lofty patriotism of the people. Almost without arms or military organization, with few who had ever served in the field, and the whole people engrossed in the pursuit of the "Almighty dollar," the very government trembled. But fortunately the masses were stronger than the government. The plowshare was left standing in its furrow, the plane lay sleeping on its bench, the shuttle of the weaver forgot its cunning, and the forge shaped only the implements of war. The broad land became a camp. Millions flew to arms, and the hoarse voice of war alone filled the ear of every village and hamlet. The contending armies rushed to the shock of battle. Ah! the gallant charge, the death grapple, the shouts of triumph, the anguish of defeat and the victory. A terrible conflict which the wilful ignorance of our sires and ourselves, prolonged through more than double the time which should have been necessary to have ended it, and when its din had subsided, and the smoke of battles rolled away, what were the casualties? Go you each to see your own homes, and find not present a father, husband, or brother. Graves, dug by wilful neglect and ignorance, hold many a hundred thousand of your bravest and best, and many bear the simple mark, "Unknown!" Still the distant roar of battle fitfully falls upon the ear; now and then the dying blasts harmlessly smite the cheek, and old memories remind us that there has been war in the land. But peace has come, and some now fondly dream that it is to last forever, and battle's wild alarms are never more to be heard in our land. There is no such thing in nature as peace, and so long as man and human nature exist, so long will war and its frightful consequences be his portion, and no man can wisely deal with the questions of to-day who does not acknowledge this fact. As we are, so shall our nation be, and without Her, we are as nothing. Her glory is the chief element of Her strength, and is to a people what noble ancestry is to a family. The nobility of the family in our country, is the record of its noble deeds, not the blazonry of its coat of arms nor the length of its rent roll. So, in our country, national glory is the record of the prowess, virtue, and achievements of the people, not the heraldic deeds of kings and nobles.

You who do not wish to hear the agonizing prayer of mother, wife, or sister prolonged through years of terrible war, see to it that in times of peace, due preparation is made therefor. There is no evading the responsibility, without entailing results too grave for contemplation.

The sword has fallen from the hand of the illustrious dead, who with it won for us the proud and noble heritage of this, our country, and we must ever remember, that by the sword was it won, and with the sword, must we and our descendants ever stand ready to maintain and defend it.

The following report of the discussion of this paper is extracted from a

newspaper:

Discussion upon the subject of the paper being the order, the chairman,