The officers, as a body, are well educated, and belong to the higher class of society, and before admission to the service, they must prove their qualifications by a rigid examination, which is practically competitive, as promotion is determined by the order of merit, as shown in the results. Preparation for the examination could be made, till recently, (1.) either by joining the Cadet Corps as a volunteer, and after a specified term of service in the field, undergoing an examination in the studies, and practical knowledge required; or (2.) by going successfully through a regular course in the Military Academy at Breda. The army is now officered exclusively from the graduates of the Military Academy.
[III. MILITARY ACADEMY AT BREDA.]
The Military Academy at Breda, prepares officers for every branch of the service, and is well equipped in respect to buildings, and appliances of illustration and practice, as well as with numerous professors for doing its work as thoroughly as any school can which receives its pupils so young.
Within an extensive redoubt, separated from the town by a rampart and wet ditch, stands an old palace which the late King set apart as a college for officers. Here are good stables and an ample stud, a swimming school, and an extensive plateau, with cannon of every calibre, which supplies the means of drill applicable to each branch of service. The accommodation within doors is excellent. Youths, sleeping in long dormitories, are yet separated one from another by curtains, within which stand each inmate’s iron bedstead, his little dressing-table, his basin, jug, clothes-press, and all other matters necessary to cleanliness and comfort. There is a spacious hall or day-room, besides a convenient dining-room, a good library, a well-stocked model-room, a small but judiciously selected museum of arms, with a good collection of minerals and fossils, of chemical and mechanical apparatus, &c. Finally, the class-books used in the place are compiled and arranged by the professors, and, in every branch of science and learning touched by them, appear well adapted to the purposes for which they are intended.
The establishment of the Breda Military Academy, when full, includes—besides the Governor, a major-general, and the Commandant, a colonel—an adjutant, a quarter-master, three captains of infantry, three of artillery, one of engineers, one of cavalry; five first lieutenants of infantry, two of cavalry, three of artillery, one of engineers; two second lieutenants of infantry, one of cavalry, one of artillery, and two of engineers—two medical officers and an apothecary. There are besides, of civilian professors and teachers, seven; and the place is capable of accommodating one hundred and ninety-two cadets. These, whether intended for the European or colonial branch of the service, live and pursue their studies together. The course comprises four years, during the first two of which, all the cadets are educated together without reference to the specific corps or services for which they may be intended: but with the commencement of the third year, such as may be selected for the artillery or engineers pass into distinct classes, while the remainder go on, by a less abstrusely scientific course, to commissions in the cavalry or infantry.
The qualifications for admittance into the Academy are not extravagantly high. Youths seem to be eligible who can read, write, and spell their own language correctly—who are able to construe an easy Latin author, and exhibit some acquaintance with the French; who are advanced in arithmetic to vulgar fractions, can demonstrate an easy proposition in geometry, and are masters of the fundamental processes of algebra. During the two first years all are well instructed in history, geography, mathematics, fortification, the theory of projectiles, plan-drawing, the French and German languages. After this they break up, and pursue their peculiar studies in different rooms under different teachers. Their progress is tested by severe periodical examinations; according to the results of which, they are either advanced or held back. But as no second trial is granted in the examination for admittance, so two failures at any of the examinations which follow, insure dismissal from the Academy. Finally, prayers are read daily to the cadets in a large hall, where also, if the weather be unfavorable, one of the ministers from the town attends on Sunday to celebrate public worship. When the weather is fine the young men march to church—Protestants under their own officers to a Protestant place of worship—Roman Catholics under like surveillance to a Roman Catholic chapel.
Although the army is to some extent officered from the ranks for meritorious service, or from those who have performed duty in the field under a peculiar system of cadetship, as well as from the graduates of the Military Academy, it is proper to add, that no promotion can be made, or commission issued, until a satisfactory examination has been passed. The prospect of this examination keeps up the habit of professional study and reading, as well as a feeling of honorable rivalry among officers of the same grade.
[NAVIGATION SCHOOLS FOR THE MERCANTILE MARINE.]
There are ten special Navigation Schools (besides a nautical division in the Academy at Groningen) located in the principal commercial ports, and among the sea-going population. They are generally under the management of local mercantile societies, but subject to government inspection, and final examination, on which the rank of the graduates as first, second, and third mate, depends.