The domestic arrangements, without being remarkable for the scrupulous cleanliness or the magnitude of the new institutions in Austria, certainly in some respects are more in accordance with English feelings. The greater privacy afforded by the use of rooms where few live together, is certainly more analogous to what has been found most desirable for English boys in large English schools, though most likely the contrary system is not less well-adapted to the national character in France and in Austria.
[2. The Division Schools.]
There are nine Division Schools for the whole army, one for each army corps, and they are placed at the following towns:—
Potsdam, Königsberg, Stettin, Frankfort on the Oder, Erfurt, Glogan, Neisse, Münster, and Trèves.
Here the young aspirant finds himself with nine or ten companions and a body of teachers amounting to about half that number, appointed by the commanding officer of the army corps, and differing considerably in different districts in their talents and ideas of education. They are often, though not always, selected from officers who have been at the Staff School, and afterwards at the Topographical Bureau. Their additional pay for teaching is uncertain; it depends upon the surplus remaining after the expenses of the household, and the money paid in purchasing books, instruments, &c., is deducted from the yearly allowance made to the school by the government. At best it is not high. It is calculated by the number of lectures, and at the most amounts to something more than 4l. 10s. (30 thalers) for the lectures on a single subject, given, it must be remembered, during the course of little more than six months in the year. The highest pay given in the Potsdam School to any one professor amounted to something more than 15 l. (100 thalers) yearly for lectures on three subjects, averaging ten or twelve lectures weekly for about six months. This must be estimated by a Prussian, not an English standard, being nearly equivalent to five-twelfths of the annual pay of a second lieutenant in that service. Still the sum is very low; and this, with some other obvious deficiencies, injures the working of the schools.
The young candidate for a commission begins a course of Tactics, Fortification, theory of Drawing and Surveying, Military Literature, Artillery, &c., Military Essays, and Drawing of Plans, which must be finished at the school in nine months, although it may be continued longer in private if the candidate is not prepared to pass his examination. As long as it lasts, twenty-three hours a week are devoted to study, besides the time occupied by questions, which the teachers are required to set from time to time, in order to keep up the pupil’s previous knowledge of French and Mathematics. The course is divided into the purely theoretical and practical divisions, the first of six and a half months, the latter of two and a half. We have already given a very full account of the studies in p. 188.
The arrangement of studies is systematic, and the number of hours devoted each week to lectures on the various subjects of study and to gymnastic riding and fencing, is as follows:
WEEKLY:
| Hours. | |
|---|---|
| Fortification, | 4 |
| Artillery, &c., | 3 |
| Tactics, | 4 |
| Military Surveying (theoretically,) | 4 |
| Military Literature, | 2 |
| Instruction on Military Duties, | 1 |
| Plan Drawing, | 5 |
| Gymnastics, | 2 |
| Riding, | 2 |
| Fencing, | 2 |
| Total, | 29 |
The subjoined plan gives the exact employment of time for each day during the week :—