powers, actions, breeds, manner of taking care of him, ordinary ailments and remedies, shoeing, lameness, saddling, sore backs, sanitary police, &c., but does not comprise a complete veterinary course.

The practical exercises consist of:-the ordinary riding-hall drill, including vaulting, the "kickers," &c.; the carrière, or out-door riding at speed, over hurdles, ditches, &c.; cutting at head; targetpractice; fencing; swimming; the usual military drills; skeleton squadron and regimental drills; rides in the country; finally, in the summer, frequent "carousels" or tilts are held.

The veterinary surgeons of the lowest grade are sent here upon their first appointment to receive instruction in equitation, to profit by the study of the model stud, and to learn the routine of their duties with the regiments. They form a distinct class.

In the Model Stud, the number of animals varies. There are usually two stallions and about twenty mares, (Arabs, English, Norman, &c.,) in addition to those selected from time to time from among the riding-animals. Attached to it is a botanical garden, more especially for useful and noxious grasses and plants.

School for Breaking Young Horses.--The best horses purchased at the remount dépôts are selected for the officers, and sent to this place to be trained. The number is fixed at 100 as a minimum. These, as soon as their education is complete, are sold or given, according to the orders of the Minister of War, to those officers who need a remount-in preference, to officers of the general staff and staff corps, those of the artillery, and mounted officers of infantry. These officers may also select from among the other horses of the school, with the approval of the commandant.

School of Farriers.-This is attached to the cavalry school, and is under the direction of the commandant. It is composed of private soldiers who have served at least six months with their regiments, and are blacksmiths or horse-shoers by trade. There are usually two men from each mounted regiment. The course lasts two years; it comprises reading, writing, arithmetic, equitation, the anatomy of the horse, thorough instruction as to all diseases, injuries, and deformities of the foot, something of the veterinary art in general, the selection of metals, making shoes, nails, tools, &c., shoeing horses. The establishment has a large shoeing shop and yard, a recitation-room, museum, and store-rooms. In the recitation-room there are skeletons of horses, men, &c., as well as some admirable specimens of natural preparations in comparative anatomy, a complete collection of shoeing-tools, specimens of many kinds of shoes, &c.—Annuaire de l'Instruction 1861, and “Observations.”

THE SCHOOL OF APPLICATION FOR THE STAFF.

AT PARIS.

DUTIES OF THE FRENCH STAFF.

THE staff is the center from which issue and to which are addressed all orders and military correspondence.

The officers of the staff are divided into chiefs of the staff, subchiefs, staff-officers, and aides-de-camp.

The colonels and lieutenant-colonels are employed as chiefs of the staff in the different military districts of France, and in the divisions of the army on active service. The ordinary posts of the majors and captains is that of aides-de-camp to general officers.

When several armies are united together under a commander-inchief, the chief of the general staff takes temporarily the title of Major-Général, the general officers employed under him that of Aide-Major-Général.

The duties of the chief of the staff are to transmit the orders of the general; to execute those which he receives from him personally, for field-works, pitching camps, reconnaissances, visits of posts, &c.; to correspond with the commanding officers of the artillery and the engineers, and with the commissariat, in order to keep the general exactly informed of the state of the different branches of the service; to be constantly in communication with the different corps, so as to be perfectly master of everything relating to them; to prepare for the commander-in-chief and for the minister of war, returns of the strength and position of the different corps and detachments, reports on marches and operations, and, in short, every necessary information.

The distribution of the other officers of different ranks, when it has not been made by the minister of war, is regulated by the chief of the general staff.

In every division of the army an officer of the staff is specially charged with the office work; the others assist him when necessary, but they are more usually employed in general staff duties, in reconnaissances, drawing plans of ground, missions, the arrangement of

camps and cantonments, superintending the distribution of the rations, &c.

The officers of the staff may further be charged with the direction of field-works thrown up to cover camps and cantonments.

Staff officers of all ranks may be employed on posts and detachments. On special missions they command all other officers of the same rank employed with them. When a staff officer is charged with. the direction of an expedition or a reconnaissance, without having the command of the troops, the officer in command concerts with him in all the dispositions it may be necessary to make to ensure the success of the operation.

The staff of generals of artillery and of engineers is composed of officers of their respective arms.

The war depot (Dépôt de la Guerre) was founded for the purpose of collecting and preserving military historical papers, reconnaissances, memoirs, and plans of battles; to preserve plans and MSS. maps useful for military purposes, and to have them copied and published.

It is divided into two sections-one charged with trigonometrical surveying, topography, plan drawing, and engraving; the other with historical composition, military statistics, the care of the library, the archives, plans, and maps. Each of these sections is under the direction of a colonel of the staff corps, who has under his orders several officers of his corps.

The war depot has taken a large share in the preparation of the map of France. The first idea of undertaking this important work dates from 1808. After various delays and difficulties, the trigonometrical survey, which had been for a time suspended, was recommenced in 1818. The work was placed under the war depot, intrusted to the corps of geographical engineers. Since this period the geographical engineers have been incorporated in the staff corps, by the officers of which the work has been continued. The primary triangulation was finished in 1845; the secondary is now finished; the filling in the details will occupy several years to come. The number of officers of the staff corps employed on the survey has varied from twenty-six to ninety.

THE STAFF CORPS.

The officers of the French staff constitute a distinct and separate corps, numbering thirty-five colonels, thirty-five lieutenant-colonels, one hundred and ten majors, three hundred and thirty captains, and one hundred lieutenants. None but officers of this corps can be

employed on the staff. When, by accident, there is not a sufficient number present, regimental officers may be temporarily employed, but they return to their regiments as soon as officers of the staff corps arrive to replace them. The division of the staff into adjutantgeneral's and quartermaster-general's department does not exist in the French service.

The only means of entering the staff corps is through the Staff School of Application. Of the fifty student-officers which the School of Application usually contains, twenty-five leave annually to enter the staff corps, and are replaced by an equal number. Three of these come from the Polytechnic, the remaining twentytwo are selected from thirty pupils of the Military School of St. Cyr, who compete with thirty second lieutenants of the army, if so many present themselves; but, in general, the number of the latter does not exceed four or five.

The course of study in the Staff School of Application lasts two years. The students have the rank of second lieutenant. On passing the final examination they are promoted to the rank of lieutenant; they are then sent to the infantry to do duty for two years, at the expiration of which time they are attached for an equal period to the cavalry. They may finally be sent for a year to the artillery or engineers.

This routine can not be interrupted except in time of war, and even then the lieutenant can not be employed on staff duty until he has completed his two years with the infantry. However, officers who have a special aptitude for the science of geodesy or topography, may even earlier be employed on the map of France or other similar duty; and, further, two of the lieutenants, immediately on quitting the Staff School of Application, are sent to the war depot (Dépôt de la Guerre) to gain a familiarity with trigonometrical operations.

The General Officers at their Inspections are required to report specially to the Minister of War on the captains and lieutenants of the staff corps doing duty with the regiments in their districts, both as to their knowledge of drill and manœuvres, and their acquaintance with the duties of the staff. They are to require these officers to execute a military reconnaissance, never allowing more than forty-eight hours for the field sketch and its accompanying report.

Officers of all arms of the rank of captain or under, are permitted to exchange with officers of equal rank in the staff corps; but they must previously satisfy the conditions of the final examinations of the Staff College.

THE BUILDINGS AND ESTABLISHMENT.

The Staff School of Application is situated in Paris, in the Rue de Grenelle, close to the Invalides. Of the ninety officers attending it, sixty lodge in the building and thirty out of it, but all take their meals in the town. Each has, in general, a room to himself. Servants are provided in the proportion of one to about eight rooms. The officers are forbidden to have private servants.

The staff of the school is composed as follows:

The Commandant, a General of Brigade.

The Second in Command, Director of the Studies, a Colonel or LieutenantColonel of the Staff Corps.

A Major of the Staff Corps, charged with the superintendence of the interior economy and the drills and exercises.

Three Captains of the same Corps, charged with the details of the interior economy of the School, and to assist the Major in the instruction of the Officers in their military duties. The Captains are required to take the direction of a portion of the topographical works on the ground.

A Medical Officer.

Thirteen Military Professors, or Assistant Professors, viz.:

A Major or Captain, Professor of Applied Descriptive Geometry.

A Major or Captain, Professor of Astronomy, Physical Geography, and Statistics.

A Major or Captain, Professor of Geodesy and Topography.

A Major or Captain of Engineers, Professor of Fortification.

A Major or Captain of Artillery, Professor of the instruction relative to this

arm.

A Military Sub-Intendant, Professor of Military Legislation and Administration.

A Major or Captain, Professor of Military Art.

A Captain, Assistant Professor of Descriptive Geography; charged also to assist the Professor of Fortification.

A Captain, Assistant Professor of Topography; charged also to assist the Professor of Geography.

A Major or Captain of Cavalry, Professor of Equitation; he acts under the immediate orders of the Major of the College.

Two Lieutenants or Second Lieutenants of Cavalry, Assistant Professors of Equitation.

An Officer of Cavalry of the same rank, acting as Paymaster to the Riding Detachment.

The Non-Military Professors are:

Two Professors of Drawing.

Two Professors of German.

A Professor of Fencing.

One hundred and forty-five horses are kept for the use of the student-officers, and eighty-two men belonging to the cavalry to look after them.

Both the studies and examinations at the Staff School hold an intermediate place between those of the Polytechnic and St. Cyr, being less abstract than the former, and higher and more difficult than the latter.