Morning journal and courier., 1881-07-16
FFICE 400 STATE STREET.
Price Four Cents.

reserves. He must pass an examination be- fore being admitted. It is expected, in fact, that he shall be gentleman in education and manne rs. He gets no pay and has to { provide himself with kit at his own expense He is not even lodged in barracks but has to find himself 8 lodging in the town where bis regiment is quartered. On the other hand the one-year volunteer is favored with a military training much more careful and complete than could be vouchsafed to ordi- nary soldiers. It being taken for granted that his intelligence is of high order, ,and that he Is, at all events, most anxious to be in structed, he is pushed through his drills at quick pace, and the lieutenant who has charge of him treats him rather as a pupil than a soldier. If he misbehayes himself he will be Iectured rather than punished and on
 a repetition of his delinquency he will be set to learn something by heart or to write out some lines as if he were at school, instead of being subjected to the ordinary military
 punishments of guard room and pack-drill.
 When one-year volunteer has served six
 months he goes up for an examination in
 drills and military science, and if found pro-
 ficient, he gets promoted to the rank of
 getTette, or on-commissioned officer He
 then wears a stripe upon his arm, goes into
 new class, and is taught the duties of a ser
 geant. At the end of a year, when his ser
 vice ends, he is examined afresh, and, &C.,
 cording to his merits. receives one of three
 certificates. If he has made no good use of
 his time he passes into the Landwehr as &
 simple private if he has done fairly well
 he goes out as non-commissioned officer;
 but if he has done very well indeed, he is
 recommended for commission. This honor
 will oblige him within a few months of his
 discharge to rejoin his regiment for eight
 weeks and go through the summer manouv-
 res an aspirant officer, messing with the
 regular officers, and being treated in all re-
 spects like p0rtepee.tuIHTich After this he
 
 will decide whether he is to be commissioned
 in the Landwehr as an officer on general ser
 vice, or whether he is to be attached as re-
 serve officer to the particular regiment in which he has been serving. This last dis tinction is naturally the most coveted, for it allows an officer to keep his name on the regimental books, to use the regimental casi- no, .Sc., while it also insures that in time of war he shall serve among his own comrades. The unattached Landwehr officer, on the other hand, breaks off all regimental ties, and has to hold himself in readiness to serve wherever he may be wanted in war time.
 To the army at large the one-year volun- teriate has rendered the most precious ser vice, for it has solved the difficulty which exists in many other armies of providing a full supply of efficient officers in time of war. Supposing that 50 one-year volunteers join a regiment within twelvemonth, and that 10 of these subsequently obtain con- in the regimental reserve, while 15 others are commissioned for general service it follows that in ten years the regiment will have, allowing for deaths and retirements, say so supernumerary officers ready to fill up take charge of the depoty and com mand the reserve prlvates Moreover there will remain the immense corps of general service officers to draw from if the so should not prove enough. A Landwehr officer gets promoted in time of as if he was on the regular establishment, but at the peace he re- |. 1,s II flow of regimental promotion is not checked by his service. On the other hand, the au- thorities are, thanks to him., spared the necessity of promoting non commissioned officers who might not be equal to their work. This is a great gain, and from the military point of view the system must be pronounced perfect in every way.
 Of it's social and political merits one might, of course, have other things to say. The youngster who at the age of 1S3 finds him self commissioned to the Landwehr has achieved a brilliant social distinction, but he may also soon find that he has bartered away l good deal of personal liberty before he was of full age to understand it's value. Follow ing civilian pursuits, he yet lives subject in manner to regimental associations, influences and criticism. If, for instance, he becomes too independent in politics an attempt will quickly be made to pull him short. He will be told that he is disgraeing his cloth; his oluCef VIII WfICe Hln letlerS oI his comrades will ply him with affectionate entreaties not to go wrong; final y, if he perseveres in his heresies, he will be fable to be cashiered with disgrace. This.is ! very serious prospect, very far remoee rom the serene freedom in which English Ns officers of militia and volunteers live. In act, no German general could tolerate the dea of Landwehr subaltern expressing himself publicly in any other capacity as taunch supporter of government, be that government what it may. Thus young nan may pay somewhat dearly for his epau- cts, and one can understand why some German gentlemen of strong liberal opin- ons should, while sending their sons to be me- year volunteers advise them not to com 'ete for commissions. It may be remarked, s fact not very creditable to Prussian tol- rance, that the sons of Jews seldom, if ever, ompete for commissions, because they now they could not get them.