Military schools and courses of instruction in the science and art of war, / in France, Prussia, Austria, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, Sardinia, England, and the United States. Drawn from recent official reports and documents. Revised Edition

by Unknown

Senior Department.—2 Instructors, 15 Students.

Junior Department.—1 Major and Superintendent of Studies, 2 Captains of Companies, 180 Gentlemen Cadets, 1 Chaplain, 1 Secretary to the Board of Commissioners, 1 Paymaster and Quartermaster, 1 Surgeon, 1 Assistant Surgeon, 1 Riding Master, 16 Instructors.

This continued without material alteration to be the establishment until 1858.

The instructors undertook the following branches:

(A.) Senior Department.—1. Mathematics and Fortification. 1. Military Surveying.

(B.) Junior Department.—3. Mathematics. 2. Fortification. 3. Military Drawing and Surveying. 1. Landscape Drawing. 2. History, Geography, and Latin. 3. French, 2. German. [The seniors in those branches also gave instruction to the Senior Department.]

The Chaplain also gave instruction in History.

The title of Major and Superintendent of Studies dates from the year 1842. For some years previously, the offices of Adjutant, Paymaster, and Superintendent of Studies, had been combined in the person of one officer, Major Proctor. On his retirement, in 1842, Lieut.-Colonel Prosser was appointed Major and Superintendent of Studies—an office which has been retained to the present day—and the appointment of Adjutant was abolished.

At the time of the inquiry by the Select Committee of the House of Commons (1855), the Junior Department of the College was a school for boys. The limits of age for admission were from 13 to 15. Candidates were admitted by application to the Governor, on passing a qualifying examination, before the professors of the college, in elementary subjects of ordinary education. The maximum term of residence was four years, the average period being three years. The course of study was intended to complete the general education of the youth, in addition to giving him military instruction, and included history, geography, and Latin, as well as more professional subjects.

The system of instruction which prevailed at the College at that time is described as follows by Mr. Twisden, now professor of mathematics at the Staff College: