[THE IMPERIAL NAVAL SCHOOL AT BREST.]
This school, located at the Road of Brest, on board the ship “La Borda,” and under the control of the Minister of the Marine, is designed for the instruction of youth destined for the corps of state naval officers. Candidates are admitted to this school after a public examination, which occurs annually. For admission to the examination, they must prove; 1st. By the production of the records, that they are French by birth or naturalization, and that on the 1st of January of the year of the examination, they were at least fourteen years of age, and had not passed the maximum of seventeen years; 2d. By the certificate of a physician, that they have been vaccinated, or have had the small-pox, and that they have no infirmity that disables them from the performance of marine duty.
The matriculation of the candidate is effected between the 1st and 24th of April, at the prefecture of the department in which the domicil of the family is located. The examination is made at the principal office for examination nearest to that domicil, or to the college where he has been educated; the choice as regards the place of examination must be made known at the time of matriculation.
[There is required for admission] into the school, a knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, plane trigonometry, applied mathematics, natural philosophy, chemistry, geography, the English language, and drawing, in conformity with the course of study pursued at the lyceums. The candidates must prepare a French composition, a translation from the Latin, an exercise in English, a numerical calculation in plane trigonometry, a geometrical drawing, and the off-hand sketch of a head. These compositions are done at Paris, and the principal towns of the departments simultaneously, on the 2nd and 3rd of July. The oral examinations are commenced at Paris on the 2nd of July, and repeated at the other towns in succession as previously announced. The oral examinations are of two grades; the lowest serving to determine whether the candidates are sufficiently well prepared for admission, the higher—to which only those are subjected, who have successfully passed the first—being the decisive one, and together with the compositions, determining the final classification in accordance with the order of merit.
[The course of study] continues two years, which are passed at the Board of Brest on the ship “La Borda.” The expense of board is 700 francs, and of the outfit, about 500 francs. A grant of the whole or half of the amount of the expense, may be made to young men without fortune. The insufficiency of the resources of a family for the maintenance of a pupil in the school, must be authenticated by a resolution of the municipal council, approved by the prefect. There may also be allowed to each beneficiary, at his entrance into the school, the whole or the half of his outfit. Application for this assistance must be made to the Minister of the Marine at the matriculation of the candidate.
The pupils that have passed the examinations of the second year in a satisfactory manner, are known as naval candidates of the second class.—Law of 5th June, 1850—Decree of 19th January, 1856—Acts of Sept., 1852, and 1st January, 1861.
[SCHOOL OF MILITARY GYMNASTICS NEAR VINCENNES.]
The practice of gymnastics is an essential part of the training both of officers and men in the French army, and constitutes a portion of the regular exercise in every military school. There are also several schools specially devoted to this department of physical education, and one styled the Imperial School of Military Gymnastics at the Redoute de la Faisanderie, part of the fortifications near Vincennes, may be regarded as the Normal School for training both officers and privates in order to act as monitors or instructors in their respective regiments and battalions. The following account of the instruction given, is abridged from an article in the New York Tribune, under the heading, “How the French and the English make their Soldiers.” The writer says that Military Gymnastics, in the form and to the extent taught in this school, is exclusively French, and is thought to have an important bearing on the more frequent and deadly use of the bayonet in future warfare.
About three hundred privates and officers compose the School of Military Gymnastics near Vincennes, where three professors of the science and art of gymnastics give a course of practical instruction for about six months each year. The school is under the same regulations as the School of Musketry—each colonel being responsible for the instruction of his regiment, and the lieutenant-colonel directs the application of the rules and regulations.