Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/666

604 while lie knew better than any one how to stimulate this martial ardour, he did nothi-ng to raise the tone of the army or inculcate a sense of duty. Glory and rewards were the two levers of action he trusted to ; and the extravagant &quot;dotations&quot; bestowed on all occasions on his followers did much to create that mercenary spirit that has ever since tainted the army. To the French soldier war means glory, promotion, plunder: if these are not immediately attainable, he becomes impatient, and blames his leaders. Physically the Frenchman is smaller than the German or Englishman, but is usually better formed about the hips and lower limbs, more active, and more enduring. Mr Brassey, the great contractor, ranks him next after the Englishman and before the German for power of work. Of a gay, volatile, excitable temperament, he has always distinguished him self by impetuosity in attack, but has not shown equal constancy and perseverance in maintaining the contest. A brilliant offensive brings out all his best qualities; he has a natural aptitude for war, a quick eye to seize the situa tion, and the furia Francese has become proverbial ; but on the defensive he becomes impatient and discouraged, and he is soon demoralised by defeat and disaster. It is then, when discipline and duty alone hold men together, that the want of the true military spirit makes itself felt, and till this is created in France, even her most brilliant successes must be uncertain and transitory.

 AUSTRIAN ARMY. The imperial army of Austria may be said to date from the Thirty Years War. Long before that, Maximilian I. had established a corps of &quot;kyrisser&quot; (original of the modern cuirassiers), and taken into his pay a considerable force of &quot; landsknechts,&quot; the early German infantry. But the latter were companies engaged for the war only, and dis banded at its termination; and it was not till the reign of Rudolph II. (about 1600) that, any permanent regiments were formed. Even these can hardly be counted as be longing to the imperial army, for the men composing them were only indirectly subject to the sovereign, and really obeyed their own chiefs, who could .transfer their services to other powers. It was Wallenstein who first raised a distinctly imperial army of soldiers owing no duty but to the sovereign; and it was the suspicion that he intended to use this army, which was actually raised largely at his own expense, to further his own ends, that led to his assassination. From that time the regiments belonged no longer to their colonels, but to the emperor; and the oldest regiments in the present Austrian army date from the Thirty Years War. At the close of the war Austria had 19 infantry and 7 cavalry (6 cuirassier, 1 dragoon) regi ments. Half a century later her forces had increased to 40 regiments of infantry and the same of cavalry; and in 1809, when she put forth her whole strength for the great struggle with Napoleon, she had Gl infantry regiments (46 German and 15 Hungarian) and 45 of cavalry. Up to the beginning of this century, her armies were recruited almost entirely by voluntary enlistment; but, like all the other powers, she was compelled to follow the example of France, and have recourse to the conscription during the great Revolutionary wars. During the half-century which intervened between the final overthrow of Napoleon and her struggle with Prussia for supremacy in Germany, various minor alterations were introduced, but in the main her military system remained as it was at the close of the great war. The conscription continued in force, the period of service being fixed at ten years, eight of them in the ranks and two in the reserve; unlimited furloughs, how ever, were largely granted, and the actual service in the ranks seldom exceeded six years, and was often reduced to two -or three in the infantry. The disastrous war with Prussia in 1866, and the new constitution finally granted in 1867, led to an entire revision of her military institu tions in the following year, and her present organisation is based on the law of 1868. The armed forces of -Austria consist of the standing army, which in peace time, on a reduced footing, serves as a school for training the nation to arms, and in war time, completed by its reserves, forms the field army; the landwehr, which in war time acts as a support to the field army and provides for home defence; the Ersatz reserve, from which casualties in the field army are replaced; and the landsturm, a national levy only called out to resist invasion. The war establishment of the standing army is fixed at 800,000; the peace establishment varies, being governed by financial considerations, but is usually about 250,000. Every male citizen capable of bearing arms becomes liable to military service on completing his twentieth year. Exemption by payment, or by providing a substitute, is not allowed; and those who are exempted on physical grounds are required to pay a sum of money, proportioned to their means, into the military pension fund. Tem porary exemptions are, however, granted, as in other armies, to only sons of widows and others who are the sole supports of families. The period of service, or liability to service, lasts for twelve years. The annual contingent of young men passed as fit for service is divided by lot into three classes. The first form the standing army, and serve for three years in the ranks, seven in the reserve of the army, and two in the landwehr. The strength of this first class is determined by the annual requirements of the army, and was fixed at 95,000. The second class forms the &quot; Ersatz &quot; reserve, or reserve for recruits of the standing army. They are not trained at all, but for ten years remain liable to be called in in case of war to fill the depots and replace the casualties of the field army. The total strength of the &quot; Ersatz &quot; reserve may not exceed that of one year s contingent for the active army; the annual &quot;Ersatz&quot; reserve contingent is therefore fixed at T ^th of this. The third class, including all who are not drawn for the two preceding ones, are passed at once into the landwehr, in which they serve their twelve years. The organisa tion of the landwehr varies in the different provinces. Austria, as far as its military institutions are concerned, is divided into four distinct provinces, viz., Austria proper, Hungary, Tyrol and Vorarlberg, and the military fron tier. The landwehr of these provinces are distinct, and cannot be moved out of their own provinces except by authority of the Reichsrath or central parliament. Most of the landwehr are trained for eight weeks on first joining, and fourteen days annually afterwards. The Hungarian militia, or &quot; honveds,&quot; as they are called, are better trained than the others. Apparently with the object of providing a more distinctly national force, the Hungarian diet has made arrangements by which one company of each regi ment is kept permanently embodied for instruction pur poses, so that every man shall have a full year s training. The landwehr also includes the men who have completed their ten years in the army and reserve, and have to serve for two years in the landwehr. These are intended to provide a steadying element of old soldiers; but as many of them have only actually served two years in the ranks, and been away from their colours for eight, their value is doubtful. The number of young men coming of age and fit for service amounts to 140,000 to 150,000 annually. Of these, 95,000 are passed into the army, and about 10,000 into the &quot; Ersatz&quot; reserve; and the balance, averaging about 40,000, into the landwehr. The landwehr thus comprises two years contingents of old soldiers (which, after deduc- 