education can be reared, and that in the hour of trial he will show not only courage to dare, but competence to devise, influence and command. In the responsibilities of such an hour will be found the fruitage of all his previous promise and preparation.

To the objection-"that a competitive examination must always result in the success of the best instructed, wholly irrespective of the capacity of the competing candidates; and the plan will thus secure for the country the services of dull mediocrity well instructed, and exclude genius without opportunities of development,”—we reply, that this does occur now under the present system, but need not, and never has been the result of competitive examination properly conducted. The examination which we propose to have inaugurated, is not to search simply or mainly for the results of memory or diligence, but for "vigor and aptitude of mind" in reference to the special purposes of this Academy. The examination will be poorly conducted, and will operate here widely differently than elsewhere, if it does not only exclude in advance palpable incompetency, and ascertain beyond doubt the possession by all the successful candidates, of that knowledge which is the basis of a special military training, but also seek, and give credit in the result, for the quick eye, the firm set mouth, the vigor and elasticity of body, the rapid decision, the contempt of danger, the competency to influence and command— and all the other marks of the incipient soldier and officer, as well as the mathematical tastes and qualities of mind which indicate the successful engineer. Composed as every Examination Commission might be, of at least one experienced officer of the United States Army, of one member (past or present,) of the Academic Board, of one officer of the State Militia, as well as one or more experts in educational matters, the military qualities of body, character and mind, will be sought for as well as the mere results of memory, igence and good opportunities of instruction, in the competing candidates.

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To the objection, that candidates will make special preparation, and in the phraseology of the class-room, "cram for the occasion," we reply, to such preparation and cramming as cover the whole ground of a good English education, we can see no possible objection; the more of it, the better. If the preparation is only crude and on the surface, we are sure that the ploughshare of interrogation requiring precise answers, oral and written, will very soon expose its superficial and undigested character.

To the sifting out and selection by open competition, might be added a period of probation for the successful candidates-making

their first year's connection with the academy a further test of capacity, preparation, and aptitude for a military career. No pains and no expense should be spared to exclude from the academy and the service, incompetent, indifferent, and unteachable cadets and officers; such men are "cumberers of the ground," and no influence and inertia should be potent enough to resist the inevitable working of the principle of open competition, applied at frequent intervals, and at every stage of promotion, in getting rid of such cadets and officers.

The fact that such a public examination is to be held from year to to year, and that the educational privileges of this Academy, and immediate and prospective promotion in the army are the prizes which await success, will, in five years call forth more latent genius in the obscure corners and poor families of a State, than has ever been sought out by the lantern of patronage, (which is now seldom carried beyond the family, or neighborhood, or party of the person having the nomination,) since the foundation of the Academy. With the network of public and elementary schools, woven by state legislation over all the land-with public schools of a higher grade, and special schools of science and the arts already established, at short intervals, or which will be called into existence by the demand for a higher and different preparation from that now given, it may be safely said, that no genius, likely to attract the attention of a member of Congress, will exist, which will not be developed under the same influences by which the "dull mediocrity" of the rest of the community will be educated. Once set in the path of instruction and development, real genius will assert its own claims to attention, and will, on a first or second trial, before any board of examiners, make its vigor, courage, and persistence felt. The result will be the same in this institution, as in every really good Public High School and Free Academy-all classes as to wealth, occupation, religious and political affinities will be represented, provided the regulations are judicious, and the examination practical and impartial.

This is the experience of the competitive principle in France ever since it was inaugurated by Carnot in the Polytechnic School at Paris, and Napoleon extended its application to every public special school, and to promotion in every department of administration, civil as well as military. And where is there more general administrative ability, central and local? Where are abler or better trained officers, military and civil, to be found? Where does "well instructed mediocrity," no matter how well backed up by wealth, find less favor, or genius for organization and command, no matter how poor or unfriended, find such speedy and sure recognition?

The experience of England in the trial of the two principles of patronage and competitive examination for admission, not only to the military and naval schools, but to the East India and the Civil service generally, is instructive, and especially on the points which we are now considering. Prior to the Crimean war, (which exposed the utter incompetency of a large number of officers, who had obtained their military education and promotion by patronage and purchase,)-admission to the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, was by nomination, and the age fixed by law, was fourteen years. The Secretary of War was satisfied by personal inquiry in 1855, that nothing could do so much to narrow and cramp the full development of a boy's mind, as his long confinement from so early an age among lads having the same limited attainments, special studies, and destination; that a majority of those admitted on nomination and through influential friends, had only the minimum qualifications specified by law;-that to most cadets the severer studies were irksome and imperfectly mastered, on account of immaturity of mind and imperfect preparation;-that the certainty of promotion by influence and purchase, after obtaining the diploma of the Academy, and not unfrequently without it, took away all stimulus for continued study; that resignations were common, when the profession of arms ceased to be a pastime, or could be exchanged for something that paid better-and the service was incumbered by officers without large and trained capacity for command, although not deficient in courage and dash. Under these circumstances the Secretary of War, advanced the minimum age of candidates from fourteen to eighteen years, removed all the general studies of the Academy into the preparatory course, and opened the doors of admission to those only, who could prove their title to enter by personal merit, in a free competitive examination. The same principle was applied to appointments and promotion in the new regiments called for by the exigences of the great war in which England found herself engaged.

Subjects, time, and places of examination, were officially made known throughout the kingdom, and commissions to conduct the examinations were appointed, composed of men of good common sense, military officers, and eminent practical teachers and educators. The results as stated in a debate in Parliament, five years later, on extending this principle to all public schools, and to all appointments and promotions in every department of the public service, were as follows:-In the competitive examinations for admission to the Royal Military Academy, candidates from all classes

of society appeared-sons of merchants, attorneys, clergymen, mechanics, and noblemen, and among the successful competitors, every class was represented. Among the number was the son of a mechanic in the arsenal at Woolwich, and the son of an earl, who was at the time a Cabinet Minister-the graduates of National Schools, and the students of Eton, and other great Public Schools. The most successful candidates were between the ages of eighteen and nineteen, as is found to be the case in competitions for admission to the Polytechnic School of France. Out of 579 successful candidates for the latter, between 1854 and 1857, 450 were over eighteen years. But the most important result of the competitive examinations for Woolwich, was the superior mental ability, the vigorous health, and eagerness for study exhibited by the new classes, and the small number who have failed on account of ill-health or incom petency. On this point, Mr. Edward Chadwick, in a Report before the National Social Science Association, at Cambridge, in 1862, says:

"Out of an average three hundred patronage appointed cadets at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, for officers of engineers and the artillery, during the five years preceding the adoption of the principle of open competition for admission to the Academy, there were fifty, who were after long and indulgent trial, and with a due regard to influential parents and patrons, dismissed for hopeless incapacity for the service of those scientific corps. During the five subsequent years, which have been years of the open competition principle, there has not been one dismissed for incapacity. Moreover, the general standard of capacity has been advanced. An eminent professor of this university who has taught as well under the patronage as under the competitive system at that Academy, declares that the quality of mind of the average of the cadets, has been improved by the competition, so much so, that he considers that the present average quality of mind of the cadets there,—though the sorts of attainment are different, has been brought up to the average of the first classmen of this (Cambridge) university, which of itself is a great gain. Another result, the opposite to that which was confidently predicted, by the opponents to the principle, has been that the average physical power or bodily strength, instead of being diminished, is advanced beyond the average of their predecessors."

The opening of the Royal Military School at Woolwich to competition, on the basis of a more advanced age, and more thorough general education, has not only drawn in pupils of higher average ability and attainments, but has enabled the authorities to extend

the course of instruction. In this, the only safe way, they solved the problem which has tortured the ingenuity of the friends of our Academy-of crowding new studies acknowledged to be desirable if not indispensable, into a course already too crowded for cadets so unequally, and, many of them, so imperfectly prepared for the course as it is.

Another result of immense importance to the educational interests of Great Britain haa followed the introduction of these open competitive examinations for appointments to the Military and Naval Schools, to the East India service, as well as to fill vacancies in the principal clerkships in the War, Admiralty, Ordnance and Home Departments of the government:-a stimulus of the most healthy and powerful kind, worth more than millions of pecuniary endowment, has been given to all the great schools of the country, including the universities of England, Scotland and Ireland. As soon as it was known that candidates, graduates of Trinity College, Dublin, had succeeded over competitors from Oxford and Edinburgh in obtaining valuable appointments in the East India service-the professors in the latter universities began to look to their laurels. As soon as it was known to the master of any important school, that some of his leading pupils might compete in these examinations, and that his own reputation as a teacher depended in a measure on the success or failure of these pupils, he had a new motive to impart the most vigorous and thorough training to his whole. school.

The success of candidates who had never seen the inside of a government Military School, in open competition for appointments to the Artillery and Engineer Corps, in the new regiments raised in 1855, over those who hold the diplomas of the Royal Military Academy, was one of the reasons which led to a thorough revision of the whole system of military education.

These results, imperfectly presented here, will, the Visitors believe, be realized from the changes, which they now suggest, in the requirements as to age, attainments, capacity and aptitude, and especially in the mode of ascertaining these qualifications, of candidates for appointments to the Cadet Corps of the United States Army.

To the present low requirements, and mode of selecting cadets, do they attribute the hostility which they know exists, to some extent, against this Academy, in different parts of the country. The charges of personal, and political favoritism in making nominations, and the absence of reasonable search, among all the youth of a dis trict, for the best qualified in natural endowments and acquired