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one half for two tours of six months' duty, and one half for but one term; while to complete the full establishment of war, the remaining third, which has been drilled for no more than six weeks in the schools of the soldier and the platoon, is always in readiness. The infantry of the line is divided into thirty-two regiments, each of which is composed of three battalions. One of these battalions is made up of the smallest men, and has a somewhat lighter equipment. This battalion is known by the name of fusileers, and does so much of the duty of light infantry as is performed in battalion. The battalion on the war establishment contains eight hundred and sixty-four combatants, on the summer peace establishment five hundred and seventy-six, and in winter no more than two hundred and eighty-eight. Each battalion is composed of four companies, and is told off into eight platoons. The habitual formation is three in depth, but the third rank does the duty of skirmishers, who rally behind the others, when fighting in line and in square, or forming column of attack. The noncommissioned officers of the line are kept constantly in pay, and are laboriously occupied in the drill of the continual succession of new draughts. After the age of twenty-five, and up to that of thirty-two, a similar course of draught is kept up; but the draughts are now enrolled in the landwehr. This is called out every fourth year for two months with the corps d'armée, to which it belongs; and during the intervening three years, is collected for fourteen days in battalions. It is drilled also every Sunday during summer in the school of the soldier and of the platoon. The number of the landwehr regiments is the same as of the line, namely, thirty-two. They are, in like manner, divided each into three battalions, and each battalion into four companies; but the numbers are always full-say eight hundred and sixty-four rank and file in each battalion. The guards have a similar organization of troops of the line and landwehr, and are composed of four regiments of each, which, with the proper proportion of cavalry, artillery, etc., constitute a corps d'armée. The other troops are arranged in eight corps d'armée. Two of these are called out annually in camps of exercise, when the whole of their peace establishment is present. The kingdom of Prussia thus has it in its power to call into the field, at a short warning, two hundred and sixteen thousand well-disciplined infantry, with a due proportion of the other arms, while it keeps in pay no more than thirty-six thousand for the whole

year, and seventy-two thousand for the six summer months. It also has an organization of eight reserve regiments of the line, and eight corresponding battalions of landwehr, which can be called out in time of need, and will add twenty-four thousand men to the war establishment.

The officers of the landwehr and of the line have the same rank, and are, in fact, the same body; for in the regiments of line and landwehr, which have the same number, the officers pass from one to the other, and stand on the same roster for promotion. They thus serve half the time in the one and half in the other service. While serving in the line, they have full pay and emoluments, and while in the landwehr, an allowance called duty money, a term equivalent to the half pay of the British service.

Finally, the male population from thirty-two to forty, is liable to service in a militia, which is only called upon in case of war to do duty in garrisons, whence the troops of the line may be withdrawn to form armies in the field.

The beauty of this system arises in a great degree from its being of popular origin. Despotic as is the authority of the king in Prussia, that power could not have accomplished so perfect an organization, had not the nation risen en masse to shake off the domination of the French emperor. The king, however repugnant his vassal condition must have been, rather followed than led the popular movement. Nothing was left at the close of the war but to reduce to an uniform system what the spontaneous action of the nation had created.

We have confined ourselves to the organization of the infantry, as that alone has reference to the subject in discussion. It may not be amiss that we should now exhibit the composition of a Prussian corps d'armée. It is formed of two divisions; each division is made up of one brigade of regular infantry, one brigade of landwehr, one brigade of cavalry, one brigade of artillery, two companies of pioneers, two companies of riflemen. The brigades of infantry and landwehr are composed of two regiments, and each regiment of three battalions; the brigade of cavalry of two regiments, and each regiment of four squadrons; the brigade of artillery of sixteen companies. Such is the active force. In addition, eight skeleton regiments of infantry of the line, each of two battalions, are ready to be embodied in time of war, to serve as a reserve, whence drilled soldiers can be drawn to fill up the active battalions; and to pro

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vide for that class who adopt the military service as a profession,and thus grow old in arms, or are unfitted by wounds for duty in the field, each regiment of infantry has belonging to it a garrison company, and each brigade a company of invalids.

The study of the Prussian army is full of instruction to those who seek to improve our own militia system. It seems to be proved by it that a militia may be made as efficient, even in offensive operations, as regulars enlisted upon the plan adopted in this country and England; that eighteen months of service is sufficient to form a soldier who shall be fit for all descriptions of service, while no more than six weeks is required to drill a man to such a degree of military proficiency, as will fit him to take a place in a battalion of which no more than one third is composed of veterans. It is not a little remarkable, that the arrangement of alternating tours of duty of six months each should be exactly that which the restrictions of our own constitution point out; and it will be seen that this is considered no obstacle to efficiency, provided the officers and sergeants are not changed. Whether such an arrangement could be effected by a law of Congress is questionable; but it could be done by the legislative authority of the separate states. The kingdom of Prussia has a population of less than twelve millions, yet by the wisdom of its arrangements, contrives to keep an army of three hundred thousand men in readiness to march, without pressing upon the industry of its people. This, since the close of the last great contest in 1815, has increased in a wonderful degree. The truth is, that with the exception of the officers and non-commissioned officers, no man need consider his vocation as a soldier as an impediment to the exercise of any description of industry. He, therefore, sure of his return to civil life, does not give himself up to the habits, which it is a slander on the profession of arms to say, must be acquired in the camp. So far from this, the Prussian army is a school of strict economy, and of the decorous observance of the duties of morality.

Our own position does not require that we should resort to measures as extensive or efficient in regard to our militia. We are vulnerable only by powers whose source of strength lies at a distance. Our militia, too, is restricted to the limits of our own territory, nor can it be moved, except in time of war, from the state to which it belongs; and no man can be

compelled to serve for more than six months at a time. The acceptance of substitutes, which policy has forbidden in Prussia, might be made the means of filling the ranks of our regular army, and thus be a measure of the utmost value in time of war. With a larger population, we yet require a less number of defenders; and thus a militia system might, by proper provisions, be made but little onerous, while, if judiciously framed, it might suffice for all the purposes of defence.

Should the excitement which has from time to time been produced by our relations with foreign countries be continued or again awakened, we may think it our duty to examine the constitution of the regular and militia force which would be suited to our institutions and position. As respects the latter description of troops, we may, perhaps, when we consider in the abstract the organization likely to be least onerous and most efficient, exhibit views different from those which we advanced in support of Mr. Poinsett's plan; for a system studied out from a new basis may be essentially different from the mere modifications offered as amendments to one proposed by another.

Even should the excitement growing out of a prospect of war, however distant, have ceased, it may, notwithstanding, be a labor of patriotism to investigate plans of rotation in militia service, and a basis of organization, which can be only established in a time of peace, in such form as to be efficient when war actually breaks out.

Discourse on the Integrity of the Legal Character. Delivered before the Law Academy of Philadelphia, by JOB R. TYSON, Esq., one of the Vice-Provosts. Philadelphia,

1839 Published by Order of the Law Academy.

THE Community is deeply interested in the promotion and maintenance of the purity and integrity of the legal character. It cannot be denied, however it may in times of peace and repose escape attention, that the members of the bar are the expounders of the laws, the guardians of private rights, the conservators of justice, and the defenders of public liberty. In a government of laws, the lawyer performs high and important duties. All classes of society feel and acknow

ledge the benefit of his counsel or the effects of his exertions. Wherever the law operates, his services are indispensable; the sphere of his duty is therefore wide and comprehensive. Whatever improves or exalts the character of the lawyer, or inspires him with a high sense of responsibility, of independence, and fearlessness; whatever renders him incorruptible in the discharge of his duties, promotes the general interests, and strengthens the safeguards of society. It has been the custom, arising more from a disposition to banter than to censure, to charge the profession with the arts of chicanery and the abuse of power and knowledge. Different reasons have been suggested for the charge, which, perhaps, may be reduced to two. The whole profession, like a family, suffers by the delinquencies of any of its members, and those who feel the effects of the law, are disposed to be revenged. Neither justice nor the ministers of it can be popular. There is a natural disposition to resist power and to depreciate the agent, whether it be directed to the preservation of the rights of persons or of governments. But the lawyer has rarely, if ever, been accused of being the willing instrument in the hands of power. In periods of tyranny and corruption, he has come forth the manly defender of the oppressed, the noble advocate of liberty, and the fearless minister of justice. The excellent discourse of Mr. Tyson gives two illustrious examples.

"The noble conduct of Sir Edward Coke, in resisting the disgraceful servility of a powerful court, and the tyranny of a capricious monarch, is a memorable illustration of the value of the lawyer in perilous times, and a striking example of moral intrepidity and personal firmness. In the reign of Louis XIV., and the regency of Orleans, that great lawyer, D'Aguesseau, rescued unhappy France by his patriotism and courage, from the intrigues of ambitious favorites, the corruptions of the tribunals, and the stupendous and dazzling projects of the infamous John Law. The annals of juridical biography over the world teem with similar examples."

These present the noble conduct of a great English and French lawyer making successful efforts to rescue their country from royal oppression and from intrigue, favorites, judicial corruptions, and projects, which threatened the liberty and happiness of England and France. But attempts have been made in other countries to overawe the advocate, sometimes by the people, and sometimes by the government; but

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