effected to the country of the allowances, quarters, &c., to which the civil branch are entitled to in many stations, and which will more than counterbalance the allowances, &c., that the extra number of officers, will be entitled to. VI. CONCLUSION.

We have now enumerated the advantages appertaining to the proposed scheme. Doubtless, in the perusal of this article, several inaccuracies and errors will be discovered, and it is to be hoped that these will be noticed and commented on by the parties concerned. This scheme is laid before the public with the hope that the subject may be thoroughly ventilated, and as a suggestion to the Secretary of State for War. It has also been written partly as an answer to some articles that appeared in a Military Journal a few months ago, advocating the reduction of the Royal Engineers and the handing over of the works to the civil branch of the Royal Engineer department. We challenge criticism in the hope that from the "clash of opinions" may spring the "spark of truth." It is pretty well agreed on all hands that the present system is faulty. Here is simply a suggestion for its improvement.

December 17th, 1861.

THE MILITARY INSTITUTE AT CHATHAM.

BY LIEUT. ROKEBY, R.M., F.R.G.S.

Ar this great Military School, there will soon be opened an Institution that is likely to produce a very beneficial effect upon the minds of the troops stationed in this garrison, a building, which it is to be hoped, will induce the British soldier to shun the haunts of drunkenness and debauchery, and frequent rooms where he may enjoy himself like a human being, and breathe an atmosphere more conducive to his health.

But the promoters of this Institution aim at higher objects than this; they hope to give the soldier the means of deriving some knowledge in those subjects, that either the shortness of his village school days, or the incompetency of his teachers, had not permitted him to attain; to inform him of the advantages of the modern weapons with which he is furnished, and by no means least, to warn him of the dreadful effects that the habits of drunkenness and debauchery are likely to produce upon his constitution, when exposed to the trying climates of other lands.

Those who are interested in the welfare of the Service, must look upon this Institution with no common eye, for they perceive another step taken towards the advancement of sound education, and therefore of civilization, among the British army; the course to be pursued will be by no means prosy, and therefore not obnoxious to the individuals concerned, for there will be occupation for the indus

trious, amusements for all, and means for enticing the drunkard to habits of sobriety, and for staying the hand of the assassin.

I have heard it proposed to deliver a course of lectures at this Institute, so that the soldiers may derive every advantage from a building of this sort, and that in the shorter days of the year, they shall not find the long winter evenings hanging heavily on their hands.

But it is probable that the funds of the institution will not allow of a regular lecturer being paid for delivering these lectures, and even if such could be done, probably on account of the smallness of the salary that the funds would admit of, would be obliged to call to our aid one of those individuals unknown to the scientific world, and whose tongues are nothing else than a piece of mechanism, used for delivering in as short a time as possible, a collection of words, phrases, and technicalities, that are as equally unintelligible and uninteresting to their hearers as well as to themselves.

It is then to the officers stationed in this garrison that the supporters of this institution must look for aid in carrying out their ideas upon this subject; from some one of them alone must they expect the first of these lectures, but how lamentable will it be if there are none who are public spirited enough to come forward in this way for the benefit of the men, and yet I have heard that such is likely to be the case.

Can this effect, that seems to be produced upon the minds of the present generation of officers, be caused by the increased rigour of examinations, the cramming for the same, or is it occasioned by the low ebb that light literature has arrived at? Is it the effect of the arsenical draught that is imbibed by the readers of those green covered volumes, books that Isaac Taylor says debase the mind with ribaldry, and contaminate the principles with infidelity.

First let us see whether cramming is likely to produce idleness, and thus produce this indifference.

Reader, imagine then to yourself a person who has had an order sent to him that he is to be prepared to pass a competitive examination in a month; he may perchance have already acquired great proficiency in some of the subjects required of him; but in others he is sadly deficient, and yet forty are going to compete with him for the twenty vacancies; he, therefore, has not only to work up his subjects well, but he must work them up in such a manner that will enable him to beat twenty of his competitors, and all this is to be done in a month.

Can this be accomplished by steady work? It is hardly possibleit must be crammed up; his subjects must be forced into him in such a manner that they will remain until the eventful day arrives, when he must pour the whole bulk out, and take his chance whether he has placed the horse before the cart or the cart before the horse, for as to understanding anything he writes is far from probable, and yet maybe he obtains a high place on the list, and then on account of the superficial knowledge he has managed to fill himself with, imagines that he is a clever man, and that the knowledge he has acquired

in this miserable way will remain in him for ever; may it rather not be compared to ice during a thaw it gradually disappears.

Is knowledge acquired in this way likely to induce a man to exert himself? when the pitch of excitement that he has been worked up to has passed off, his whole system seems prostrated, and a great antipathy to work of any kind whatever, induces him to give up study for ever; he undervalues the advice of age and sets up his own ignorant self as a better guide. And do not the books he reads only induce him to continue his idle life? do not those trashy works tend to keep up the excitement in his brain, and therefore increase his abhorence to books of a more wholesome and intellectual character?

It is then evident that without reading, no lecturing can take place; but it is to be hoped when the call is made for officers to lecture in this institution that it will be responded to in a manner that will show that the increased severity of the examinations that are now taking place for entrance into the service are not without some benefit to the individuals concerned. It will, in ali probability, appear that I have departed very much from the subject of this article, but I considered it necessary, to bring to notice the present system of cramming which is now carried on to such an extent, whether for examinations for entrance into the service or anything else, and which can hardly be the means, by which the Government expect men to obtain that knowledge that will enable them to pass an examination that may fit them for some appointment upon the staff of the army hereafter. The last thing that I wish to mention, are the subjects to be given for lecturing upon, and the manner of delivering them, for many may give reasons for not coming forward to lecture, as they would, in all probability be expected to give their lectures viva voce, whereas, if they were allowed to read them, they would not only give an infinitely better lecture, but would not be kept in a perpetual state of nervousness for fear that they should forget any of the headings of their discourse.

Concerning the subjects to lecture upon, of course there can be none so decidedly important as those that relate to the profession of the soldier and instruct him in the use of the weapons of war, and of showing him the advantage that he may derive from improving himself in the knowledge of their construction and use.

Concerning other subjects, I should think that geography ought to stand first. The description to which this title may be applied, says the Encyclopædia, "may be more or less general, either embracing such truths only as belong to the earth considered as one whole, or extending to particulars which belong to and distinguish the several countries spread over its surface."

In the wide range which this subject presents, several divisions and sub-divisions are suggested by the different views in which the earth may be considered, and some one of these could hardly fail to be interesting to those who heard them.

This science can be divided into four divisions: Absolute Geography, Physical Geography, Special Geography, and Political Geo

graphy. Under the head of Absolute Geography, comes the mass and form of the globe, the motions and intrinsic properties of the globe, and of the effects from celestial causes. Under the head of Physical Geography comes the natural divisions and geological features of the world, of mountains, places, deserts, mines, and minerals, the particulars of the animal and vegetable kingdoms, of seas, lakes, rivers, and springs, of currents, tides, and hydrographical data, of climate, winds, weather, and seasons, and of volcanoes, earthquakes and other phenomena. Under the head of Special Geography may be placed the ancient and modern history of the earth, the distribution of races and languages, of the names, derivations, and revolutions of states and cities, of latitudes, longitudes, astronomical and geodætical, of the variation, dip, and other magnetic phenomena, the determination of heights and distances, and of the relative magnitudes of all countries and nations; and lastly, under the head of Political Geography may be classed the population, division of the people and general statistics, the artificial division of lands, agriculture and produce, of commerce, manufactures, and fisheries, the Government, manners, customs, laws, and policy, the canals, roads, mills, bridges, and markets, and of the religion, education, forces, and arts.

Now, among all these are innumerable subjects for a series of most interesting lectures, and depend upon it, that all those who admit as a principle that they ought to educate themselves, will, if they have any vigour of mind, be anxious to take advantage of these opportunities of imparting and receiving instruction.

THE AMERICAN "DIFFICULTY."

"WARRE is an appeal to Heaven, when justice cannot be obtained on Earth," says an old writer, and never was the saying more applicable to any war than to the one now imminent between this country and the Northern American Republic. Without reproducing the endless and complicating texts of International Law, or adding others to show that we are right in our views of the Trent outrage, we will merely attempt to show from the written testimony of American statesmen that the respective positions of England and America in 1812 are exactly reversed in 1862. The Americans went to war with us in 1812 for precisely the same reasons as we are now going to war with them, and the joint production of Madison and Monroe need only be cited to throw in the teeth of Lincoln and Seward. The following are extracts from the message of President Madison to the two Houses of Congress, on the 1st June, 1812 :

"British cruisers have been in the continued practice of violating the American flag on the great highway of nations, and of seizing

and carrying off persons sailing under it; not in the exercise of a belligerent right, founded on the law of nations, against an enemy, but of a municipal prerogative over British subjects. British jurisdiction is thus extended to neutral vessels, in a situation where no laws can operate but the law of nations, and the laws of the country to which the vessels belong; and a self-redress is assumed, which if British subjects were wrongfully detained and alone concerned, is that substitution of force for a resort to the responsible sovereign, which falls within the definition of war. Could the seizure of British subjects, in such cases, be regarded as within the exercise of a belligerent right, the acknowledged laws of wars, which forbid an article of captured property to be adjudged, without a regular investigation before a competent tribunal, would imperiously demand the fairest trial, where the sacred rights of persons were at issue. In place of such trial, these rights are subjected to the will of every petty commander."

Again:-"British cruisers have also been in the practice of violating the rights and the peace of our coasts. They hover over and harass our entering and departing commerce. To the most insulting pretensions they have added the most lawless proceedings in our very harbours, and have wantonly spilt American blood within the sanctuary of our territorial jurisdiction. The principles and rules enforced by that nation, when a neutral nation, against armed vessels of belligerents hovering near her coasts, and disturbing her coasts are well known. When called on, nevertheless, by the United States, to punish the greater offences committed by her own vessels, her government has bestowed on their commanders additional marks of honour and confidence. Under pretended blockades, without the presence of an adequate force, and sometimes without the practicability of applying one, our commerce has been plundered in every sea; the great staples of our country have been cut off from their legitimate markets; and a destructive blow aimed at our agricultural and maritime interests. In aggravation of these predatory measures, they have been considered as in force from the dates of their justification; a retrospective effect being thus added, as has been done in other important cases, to the unlawfulness of the course pursued. And to render the outrage the more signal, these mock blockades have been reiterated and enforced in the face of official communications from the British government, declaring, as the true definition of a legal blockade, that particular points must be actually invested, and previous warning given to vessels bound to them not to enter." And again :-" Whether the United States shall continue passive under these progressive usurpations, and these accumulating wrongs; or, opposing force to force, in defence of their natural rights, shall commit a first cause into the hands of the Almighty disposer of events; avoiding all connections which might entangle in the contests or views of other powers, and preserving a constant readiness to concur in an honourable re-establishment of peace and friendship, is a solemn question."

The above passages from this bellicose message are sufficiently striking, and the parallel to the present crisis obvious enough