5. Those employed in the public schools, only so far as it would interrupt their school duties.
6. Railroad officials and employés of the steamboat companies that have received concessions from the government.
7. All those who have been deprived of their civil rights by sentence of court are excluded from the service.
The omission of the members of the Federal Tribunal from the list of exempts, while the executive and legislative officials, together with the clerks of the Tribunal, are embraced, can be accounted for only upon the principle of inter arma silent leges.
When a Swiss citizen reaches his twentieth year he must present himself at the levy of troops of the Canton of his domicile and be enrolled. This must be done before an application for exemption can be made. The raw recruits are sent direct to one of the Écoles des Recrues, for which the Confederation is divided into eight territorial departments, for infantry, for cavalry and artillery, three each, and two for engineers. The federal military forces, or Bundesauszug, are divided into three distinct classes:
1. The Élite or active army, in which all citizens are liable to serve from the age of twenty to thirty-two.
2. The Landwehr or first reserve, composed of men from the age of thirty-two to forty-four.
3. The Landsturm, consisting of men from seventeen to fifty, not incorporated in the Élite or Landwehr. This last reserve cannot, as a rule, be called upon for service beyond the frontier. Men are not discharged from the Élite until their successors have been enrolled, and in case of war the Federal Council is authorized to suspend discharges both from the Élite and the Landwehr. The recruits at the Écoles des Recrues undergo a course of instruction for periods ranging from forty-five to eighty days, after which they are drafted into the different arms of the service, and (with the exception of the cavalry, who turn out annually) are called out on alternate years for a course of training (cours de répétition), continuing from sixteen to twenty days. Periodically, once or twice a year, the troops of a number of Cantons assemble for a general muster. The infantry soldier has five periods of training during the ten years he remains in the Élite or active service:
First year, forty-five days as a recruit.
Third year, sixteen days as a trained soldier.