be so called, the Government is free to choose any class of officers it pleases, and adopt any mode of nominating them it may find convenient, the purchase system would, in fact, be an impossibility but for this. On the other hand, it is certainly anomalous, and might become very dangerous, to allow so large a proportion of very important work to rest permanently on the shoulders of a class for whom it is by no means easy to find compensation that might be thought adequate-it is scarcely an unfair way of putting the question to say, open up promotion for those who do the work, either by changing the system of promotion or the system of work.

There is another point on which we desire to explain our meaning more explicitly than it was possible to do when it was casually brought forward a little further back, we said that the duties of the Non-Commissioned officers form no proper school for the duties of the officer in the higher grades, but it by no means follows from this that it may not be very important that all candidate officers should obtain practically a perfect insight into the way in which the duties of both the private and sub-officer should be performed, and that he should understand perfectly how they stand with one another, and what is fair and practicable for an officer to demand in the way of duty according to the regulations that may exist.

This is the cadet system that exists under various names and with certain modifications in the German Armies, and has been found to answer much better, if not abused, than any very extensive importation of sub-officers into the higher ranks, and, should circumstances ever render it desirable to modify the present system of the British Army, and introduce a different division of labour from that now existing, this would probably be the most advantageous system to adopt, because it creates a probationary period for aspirant officers, a matter of very great importance.

Having now laid before the reader further proofs of the great difficulties that lie in the way of finding, in the service itself, anything like suitable and adequately remunerative employment for really deserving Non-Commissioned officers, who have arrived at a certain period of life which renders a permanent settlement desirable, we may revert to the further consideration of the Continental plan of providing civil employments, taking it for granted that the country is bound, both as a matter of justice and policy, to make some certain provision for meritorious servants that goes beyond the usual pension.

It would be useless to attempt to enumerate here, even if we were in a position to do so accurately, all the various civil employments that are in the gift of the central authorities in most foreign countries, our system of municipal government throws all this patronage into the hands of the local authorities, whether wisely or not we do not pretend to determine, although the late escape of the Head Centre of the Fenians from a strong prison has shaken

our faith in the existing system very considerably. We do not even possess for the army an equivalent to what the coast-guard is for the navy, which most Continental states having long land frontiers, naturally do, in fact, our means in this respect are very limited indeed.

But there is one institution that has been very extensively utilised by foreign governments in the way we have indicated, and with the best results too, that might without any great difficulty be applied to the same purposes by ourselves, we allude to railways. No doubt there is this great difference, that whereas in Great Britain all railways are private undertakings, in most Continenta. states they are chiefly, if not exclusively, in the hands of the governments. But most of our readers will be aware that by virtue of a certain Act of Parliament, now coming into operation, that complete monopoly which was originally conferred on railway companies, and, as many competent authorities think, very unwisely too, will at a certain period cease and determine, and a certain amount of,control revert to the Government.

But more than this, in the very last session of Parliament a proposition was made, we believe by Irish members, to the effect that it was highly desirable in the interests of the country that the central government should take all the railways into its own hands, thus reverting to the idea of the late Lord George Bentinck, which should have been adopted when originally brought forward. It was argued, and not without great plausibility, that the Irish railways might be in the first place taken over, and that the result of the experiment made there, which was in itself highly desirable, would afford an excellent opportunity for judging whether the plan should not be extended to the English and Scotch lines also.

It struck us forcibly at the time that there was a great deal more in this proposition than the mere financial question, as which it was treated, and we were rather surprised to find that the great importance of the measures proposed, in a military point of view, seemed to be altogether overlooked, at least we cannot recollect its having been mentioned. Now, the importance of railroads for the defence of every country, and especially our own, which in consequence of its insularity has an immense frontier, can scarcely be overestimated, and much of their efficiency depends on the working staff being steady, punctual, and trustworthy. In Ireland, especially at the present moment, it would be an immense advantage to have the personnel of the great lines composed of individuals that were perfectly reliable in a political point of view, for Fenianism, which has evidently succeeded in extending its ramifications into the prisons, will most probably possess numbers of affiliated members on the great Irish lines which must be used for the transmission of troops in case of insurrectionary movements, and dreadful disasters might result in consequence. In 1859, just before the battle of Magenta, some of the people connected with the railway between U. S. MAG. No. 447, FEB. 1866.

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Verona and Brescia, who were acting as partisans of Garibaldi, managed to upset an Austrian military train near Dezenzano, by which a great number of lives were lost, and the passage of troops retarded at a most critical moment.

The Ministry, as well as we can recollect, by the mouth of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, rather declined for the present than actually refused to entertain this proposition, and one of the difficulties put forward, indeed the only one that seemed to have much weight, was that too much patronage would be thereby thrown into the hands of the Ministry of which an improper and unconstitutional use might be made. Now what we venture to propose here would completely obviate this objection, there could be no question of interest or of electioneering in the whole affair; the selection of rank and file, non-commissioned and commissioned officers-for it is the great advantage of the system, that for almost every class and rank in the army corresponding ones exist on all railway establishments would be regulated on the principle of reward for past services conferred in the shape of permanent employment, instead of pension or half-pay The mechanism we would venture to suggest would be as follows:

The Adjutant-General's Department to furnish periodically to the War Office, qualification list of all privates, Non-Commissioned Officers, and officers, desirous of accepting railroad employment, these would specify previous education, trade or profession, capacity, speciality if any, age, health, married or single, &c. &c., and from time to time rectifications, as further promotion, continued good-conduct, degradation by Court-Martial which should disqualify absolutely, total or partial invalidity, death, or the individual in question renouncing his claim.

The War Office should have a special office for registering these candidates, who would be divided into classes corresponding to the civil employments they were entitled to pretend to by their military rank, the names being entered according to seniority in each rank and class. The department of the Public Ministry charged with the administration of the Railways would then have to apply to the War Office for individuals as they might be required, these would serve a certain probationary term at the end of which the definitive appointment would take place, no civilian to be eligible for appointment so long as qualified military candidates were on the list; in fact we have already a prototype very nearly in the corps of Commissionaires.

It is not easy to see how the patronage thus vested in the Ministry could be abused for electioneering purposes; in order to prevent all possibility of abuse in this direction, it should be laid down as a rule that no franchise is derived from any dwelling &c., belonging to a railway, and that although employés might register votes in respect of other property they possessed, their votes should remain in abeyance, for which precedents already exist.

We cannot venture to do more than touch upon one item of the

financial question connected with this proposition. Everything in the shape of good conduct allowances should continue to be enjoyed by the railway official in the same measure as they would be if he simply took his discharge; but we think that the military pension, if any, might remain in abeyance, so long as the individual received a railway salary of a certain amount, to revive however in case the employment ceased without a railway pension of adequate amount having been conferred. In the case of officers accepting employment, it would be a question to be determined how far purchase money should be returned, probably not a greater amount than that actually paid, by which a certain saving might be effected without injustice.

We have now completed the sketch of what we consider would be an improvement in the present position of the Non-Commissioned officer, and an inducement to respectable young men to enter the army, because employment and a position for life would be thereby secured.

In the first instance, we propose, for the sake of giving the NonCommissioned Officer a higher position in the eyes of the privates, that the same system of saluting that exists in all other European Armies should be introduced into the British. Secondly, we would confine the promotion to the rank of officer as nearly as possible to cases of distinguished conduct in the field for the reasons already adduced, and finally we have put forward the claim of all others to permanent civil employment under the government, and hope to have succeeded in showing how this may be effected.

Although Europe is at this moment apparently tranquil and no casus belli appears imminent, those who look carefully beneath the varnished and painted surface cannot fail to detect symptoms of great, general and unmistakeable uneasiness in all countries, and amidst all classes; and although we cannot but applaud the endeavours of the peacemakers, it is impossible to conceal from ourselves the fact that we are in the midst of a great period of transition. Human power and human wisdom will both prove unavailing to stem the torrent if once the flood gates are opened, but it is of great importance and the safety of the nation may depend on it, that when the moment of peril does come, our army should stand as it has always done, like a "city that is at unity within itself" and that every man may have the conviction that the country for which he is ready to shed his heart's blood is no niggard stepmother.

MILITARY PRISONS.

We, last year, gave the substance of the report of LieutenantColonel Henderson on the discipline and management of Military Prisons in 1863; we have now received the report for 1864, from which we gather the information which follows.

The total number of prisoners during the year was 5,470, and the proportion which these bore to the force under arms at home was 697; the daily average number of prisoners in confinement throughout the year was 996; the average length of their sentences was sixtysix days; which if we may draw an inference from the Reports for 1856 and the five following years, shows that the offences committed by the men in 1861 were of a graver character or were punished with greater severity. The punishments inflicted by visitors for serious offences were as follows. Eight men were sentenced to. receive among them three hundred and fifty lashes; nineteen were sentenced to solitary confinement; five to separate confinement, and four to be put in irons.

The number of soldiers committed who were under twenty years of age was 628; above twenty years and under thirty, 4,001; and thirty and under forty, 816; above forty, twenty-five.

Twelve hundred and nine of the prisoners had served less than two years; 2,727 had served more than two years and less than seven; 1,325 had served between seven and fourteen years; 190 between fourteen and twenty-one; and nineteen had actually completed twenty-one years service.

Of the offenders, 3,302 were English, 517 were Scotch, and the remaining 1,651 were Irish. As regards their religion it might almost be said that the Englishmen were all Protestant-the Scotchmen, Presbyterian-and the Irishmen, Roman Catholics; at least one would be disposed to draw this conclusion from the similarity of numbers, there being 3,210 Protestants, 498 Presbyterians, and 1,762 Roman Catholics. The characters borne by them in confinement were mostly good, or to be more precise, 4,196 behaved well, 612 indifferently, and 662 were decidedly bad.

The number of punishments inflicted by Governors of Prisons for minor offences was 1,447, which shows a considerable diminution within the last three years as compared with the three preceding, but the average length of sentences has been greater. As to the nature of the offences, 1,418 were desertions; 1,415 absence without leave; 1,132 drunkenness; 165 disgraceful conduct; and 1,305 were guilty of crimes of other kinds.

Corporal punishment was inflicted in 466 cases, 1,438 of which were desertions. The proportion which deserters bore to the effectives of the army was 0.704

There were among the prisoners 2,577 who had been in prison. previously; and of these 130 were under twenty years of age, 1,945 were between that age and thirty; 400 between the latter age and forty, and twelve were over forty years of age. As regards their term of service 214 had served two years or less; 1,516 had served more than two, but less than seven years; 713 had served more than seven, but less than fourteen years; 121 had served more than fourteen but less than twenty-one, and finally, thirteen had completed twenty-one years service. Of these re-committed pri