broke dazzlingly upon my eyes.

sleep!

There were the soldiers of the Guard leaning on their muskets, and there was the Inspector creeping into my hole. Halloh, Greenhorn! Greenhorn! Up with you, Greenhorn! What's the matter?' said I, angrily, Confound you, let me Ah! Ah! Don't chaff me! -don't chaff me!-I am the Inspector, and come to see that all is in good order. So! so! devil's baby, you've taken off your jacket, in the very face of the rules and regulations of His Majesty's service! I've a great mind to report this Greenhorn at the Commandantur, and they don't joke there. Give you three days Middle Arrest, that your soul whistles within you. On with your jacket in double quick time! Ah Greenhorn! you've spit on the floor! What's the pail for ?-what's the pail for?' Saying which he hobbled out, and I was again left in the dark." This was the first, but, by no means, the last time that the author of the " Sketches was accommodated with free quarters in the tower of Cologne, for the Prussian military code has two grand penal features; arrest and additional duty. The latter is the most lenient way of punishing negligence and carelessness in the service. Corporal punishment may be said to be almost wholly abolished. Indeed, with a class of soldiers like those of Prussia, such a mode of punishment could never be admissible. Disgraceful offences, such as theft, &c., are however punished by depriving the culprit of the cockade; and, if the offence is repeated, he can then be sentenced by a court-martial to receive a certain number of lashes. Such a case occurs very seldom, for so great is the abhorrence of corporal punishment in Prussia, that the officers themselves will protest against this punishment being resorted to, because they feel it a disgrace and a torture, since their duty obliges them to attend." Court-martials are, therefore, little inclined to sentence a man to corporal punishment, they prefer sending him into severe arrest for six weeks; or, if the case is very bad, they condemn him to hard labour in a fortress. punishment varies from three months to three years. Men who have repeatedly deserted from the ranks are punished in this

manner.

66

This

Mr. Hackländer's book furnishes us with capital specimens of the way in which the discipline is enforced and the duty carried on in the Prussian army. The manner in which the soldiers are treated is akin to the treatment which the boys of a large school receive at

the hands of their masters, and their offences emanate, for the most part, from a boyish spirit of laziness or mischief. The majority of the men are, indeed, “children of a larger growth; their ages varying from seventeen to six-and-twenty. Their soldiering is but another stage of their education; their faults are the faults of their age. There are no inveterate vices to contend with: insubordination is checked in the germ, and habits of drunkenness are extremely rare. The men are too young and too much occupied to get drunk. The greater part of the soldiers, and especially the Volunteers, are extremely fond of boyish freaks; and the officers are often obliged to exert a considerable degree of severity to keep their exuberance of animal spirits within bounds, and to check them in their tricks, or "dumme Streiche," as they emphatically call it. Mr. Hackländer tells of one of these tricks, by which some of his friends got into trouble. They were on a march, and quartered for the night in a little town; the Volunteers met in the evening to walk through the streets, and to "ulk." This is a slang term. It comprises all the amiable tricks by which very young men become, not unfrequently, public nuisances; it means singing in the streets, ringing the house-bells, and carrying off the bellhandles, annoying the passengers, changing the sign-boards of the shops and public-houses, breaking windows, etc. One of the favorite " ulks of the Volunteers in that brigade was to enter boldly and in a body the door of any large house, and to proceed up stairs to the top of the house, with as little noise as possible, to answer no question from the servants, but on a signal being given, to rush down stairs with clattering of spurs and sabres, laughing and howling. "This trick we had frequently played with impunity, and we were bold in consequence. We found a fine, large house, which seemed expressly built for our purpose: it was four stories high, with broad, comfortable stairs, and lamps on all the landings. The house-door was wide open. So charming an opportunity could not be allowed to pass: we entered, and were met on the first landing by a servant, who wished to be informed whom we wished to see? The great thing was not to answer, but busily and quickly to mount higher up, and so we did. The servant followed us to the door of the loft, when we halted; I turned round and said very coolly, Does not Mr. Müller live here? Where the deuce is his room? ' The servant looked rather sheepish. There must be some mistake about it, gentlemen,'

said he, for there is no Mr. Müller in the house; ' at which we set up an appalling howl, dropped our swords noisily on the steps, and rushed down the stairs screeching and clattering. In going up I had led the way, so I brought up the rear in coming down ; my sword too got entangled with the banisters, and my comrades had already gained the lowest stairs, where they howled like so many devils, while I was still clattering down the upper one. No time was to be lost: doors were being opened in all directions. A couple of servants with lights came down stairs after me: I cleared the last ten steps of the second stairs with one bound, and stood studdenly transfixed with terror, for a voice, which I knew but too well, rung at that moment through the house. It was the Colonel!

Ho! ho!' roared he, 'confound the good-for-nothing dogs of a million! Tausend Schock Donnerwetter crush you! Ho! ho a whole troop of them! Stand still all of you. If one of you move I shall do something which I shall be sorry for tomorrow! Lock the doors and send for the guard. You Schwerenöther! I'll have you up before a court-martial! '

"To this moment I am ignorant how I managed to stop myself in my violent rush. I did it somehow. I stood like a statue, pressing my sabre to my breast to prevent its rattling. It was a trying position-the servants above, the Colonel below. Where was I to hide myself? There was not even a dark corner. At that moment I saw a door at my left slowly open and a light shining through it. I made a violent rush against that door. There may have been some opposition from some person or persons inside, but I did not feel it. În a moment I found my way into a nice little bed-room, where two pretty girls, its inmates, did all they could to make up for their want of drapery by hiding behind the bed-curtains. They trembled violently, but they spoke boldly.

"What can you want here?' said they.

'Get out.'

"For God's sake, don't betray me!' said I.

"Their answer, if any, was drowned by the voice of the Colonel counting the number of his prisoners.

"Two-four-five!

Who told me there were six of them? Where the devil is that fellow Hackländer, for I 'm sure he is one Birds of a feather flock together. Look about the house you and try to find the young donkey!' This was the critical moment in Hackländer's adventure, for the

of you. some of

ladies seemed almost inclined to give him into custody. However, they did not do so, because (as they afterwards informed our hero), they had brothers who were Volunteers, and who were also fond of making "dumme Streiche." Mr. Hackländer's comrades were marched off to prison, while he escaped. When all was quiet, he was conducted by the girls to a back-door which communicated with the garden; he climbed over the wall, and was in safety. Mr. Hackländer's military career lasted above two years, for it was his intention to get promoted to the grade of officer indeed, he passed through the ranks of bombardier and serjeant, but quitted the service at the age of nineteen, because he got disgusted with the tedious routine of a soldier's life in peace. He travelled afterwards in Syria and Egypt, as secretary to one of the lesser German princes, and wrote a clever and amusing description of his journey under the title of "Daguerreotypes from the Orient." After his return he was appointed Reader to the Crown Prince of Würtemberg, and has, of late, been attached to the court of that Prince in the quality of "Hofrath." He has, therefore, no reason to regret his having quitted the Prussian service, for unless an officer possesses a private fortune, he is greatly to be pitied. A lieutenant's annual pay comes hardly up to thirty pounds. After deducting the charges for his mess and clothes from his monthly allowance, he has but a few shillings left to meet all his other expenses for the month. His position, as an officer and a gentleman, forces him to keep up appearances, and his pecuniary difficulties make his life one continual torture, and cause him to envy the lot of the non-commissioned officers, who may do as they please, and whose incomes are comparatively much larger. The case has frequently happened that promotion was offered to non-commissioned officers, but they almost invariably refuse it. They refuse it, not on account of any ill-will or contempt shown to them by the other officers of the regiment, but because they prefer their own comparative affluence, to the semi-starvation of a lieutenancy. The economical principles of Prussia, however judicious and praiseworthy, are very hard upon the poor young men who devote themselves to the service of their country; for there is scarcely any chance of promotion to a higher grade. The lieutenants of a regiment rise by seniority. The death or promotion of an higher officer causes a gap now and then, but it is almost imperceptible in the lower regions. Some time ago I fell in with an Army List of the year 1819, and was led by curiosity

to compare it with a list of 1846. I found that a very great number of the junior lieutenants in 1819, were lieutenants still in 1846. Many of them, I knew, had nothing to live on but their pay, and I felt my heart ache at the idea of the sorrow, misery, and hopelessness of these twenty-seven years of their lives. And how long may they yet have to wait till they obtain the rank of captain, and a competency-that is to say, one hundred per annum! Thirty years' service, and at the end of them, one hundred pounds a-year, or an annual pension of fifty pounds instead-these are the allurements of a military career in Prussia!

cry.

There is a hackneyed proverb about great effects and small causes. The low pay of the Prussian officers may one day be of importance to Europe. There are no hopes for them in time of peace: they are mad for war. "Death or promotion!" is their It has been said that economy is the least important of the reasons which makes the Prussian War Office so cruel to the poor lieutenants, but that they are starved on the same principle as keepers do dogs in a kennel-to make them more eager to hunt down the game. But the experiment, at best, may prove an unsuccessful, if not a dangerous one. Dogs have been known to turn upon their keepers, whom they have devoured. Starvation, though it has produced a warlike enthusiasm in the minds of the Prussian officers, has failed in making them enthusiastic on the subject of the reigning family. They have been demoralised by hopelessness and misery. The proud among them are sullen and discontented; the less lofty of mind are toadies and sponges. Other absolute governments lean on a strong military party; they brave the people by petting the army. The house of Hohenzollern has no such party to lean on. Their lower officers will fight for them, it is true; but so impatient are they of a change, that they will also fight against them. The policy of the Court of Berlin is selfish in the extreme. Half a century of that policy has not been lost upon the people; it has made them selfish. The Prussian national defences, though perfect in their kind, can, under existing circumstances, only serve to intimidate. The Court of Berlin has, on the strength of them, a voice in the Council of Kings; its representatives seem to hold a heavy weight, which they may drop into any scale. But this is seeming, and seeming only. The Prussian armies, though ready to shed their blood in the real defence of their country, will be found on trial to be very