THE MAIL.

Auckland Star, Volume II, Issue 380, 29 March 1871, Page 2

THE MAIL.

All the officers of the Prussian line have to pass six months in the ranks. For twothirds of them (his is a probation, at the end of which they have to satisfy a standing .committee of the corps to which they seek admission not only as to professional attainments, but also to parentage aiid means. The remaining third hare received their appointments direct from the cadet schools, and may be considered, thereon, to be nominated by the King. For the Landwehr, or reserve forces, a body of instructed officers has been provided by regulations so prcgnaut with wisdom and affording such an excellent example for our imitation that they merit some detail. Conscription is universal, but all young men of the educated classes, who are able to provide the means of their own equipment and maintenance, and to produce certificates of conduct and attainments from school or college, are allowed to serve for one year in the different li^ht infantry or rifle corps. When the young cadet, or " einjahriger," as he is called, joins the corps to which he has chosen to be attached, he is posted to a company, after which his attendance is rigidly exacted at drills and parades, but except when on military c uty his time is at his own disposal. The military enthusiasm of 1813 has so far survived, that it has long been regarded as part of the education of the son of every manufacturer, proprietor, professional man, even evei'y prosperous shopkeeper, to spend one of the years between 17th and 20th birthdays in passing through this volunteer course. Sucli of these cadets as do not aspire above the average level return to their homes, with the prospect of taking their places in the ranks of the conscription in their turn ; but any cadet who desires it may by special aptitude obtain a certificate of qualification, entitling him to the first vacancy a3 sergeant, and in due course to a commission, in the Landwehr battalion of his particular district.—"The French and German Armies and the Campaign in trance," iv the Quarterly Review.

At a meeting of the Brighton (England) burgesses the other day, Mr. Wood fluid in reference to the dinner given to the Prince of Wales on the occasion of his visit to that place, "They went and spent a lot of money in feasting that great pauper the Prince of Wales, (liisses, applause, and uproar.) Yes ; he would repeat it. (Hisses and confusion.) Hiij definition of a pauper was anybody who was mean enough to be fed out of the poor rates, and he happened to knatv that they almost spent £500, in feasting that great pauper (hisses) out of the poor rates. He could not understand any manfiaring to be called that when lie is contemptible enough to be fed out of the poor rates. (Question.) That was the question—how their money was spent."— News of the World.

" A sad spectacle is now presented by many churches in Normandy. The two at Pont Andamer are occupied by four thousand illfoi n.«ift' iir-craajor reucu-«~~-.rw»___AjOfIojiflLear_ fourteen hundred mobiles sleep on the nag-' stones of St. Leonard's Church, and in St. Catherine's are fifteen hundred in so exhausted a state that three or four have died under the porch. At Lisieux fifteen thousand men, worn out with huziger and cold, arrived lately, one thousand of whom are lodged in the three churches. The greatest sufferers rest on the arm-chairs of the priests and churchwardens, while in the chapels a frugal repast is prepared and ragged garments are mended. Amid all this tapers are burning before the Virgin, and soldiers on their knees are imploring her to bring back victory to them, ond that order and discipline which alone makes armies invincible.

Experiments are to be made at Shooter's Hill in order to test the utility of Thomson's road steamer in drawing guns and other heavy loads up lull, over bad roads, or land where there is no road at all, with a view to its introduction into the Army Service Corps. One of the smaller engines has already been purchased, and is in use at tho Royal Arsenal, where an instructor is daily employed teaching soldier artisans how to handle it.

The Roman Catholic ladies of England, following the example of the ladies of Rome, contemplate (understands the Westminister Gazette) presenting an address of sympathy to the Pope.

The Chief Constable of Leeds, in reporting a large increase in the number of persons convicted of drunkenness, notwithstanding an improved state of the beer houses, attributes the increase to the deleterious quality of the liquor drunk, which creates in some a stupor so complete as to render them incapable of the least action. He states that he h:is " seen men fall as suddenly as though poisoned." The worst feature in such cas^s is, that the poor at length aoquire a liking for such depressing poisons, and use them because their stupefying effect is more intense and continuous. It is said that in Liverpool public-houses selling wholesome liquor cannot compete, in 'he lowest districts, with those which do not, Surely it is a matter of public interest that publicans should be prevented from thus poisoning the people wholesale, and from converting them from industrious citizens into dependent paupers. The Wooden Line-of-Battlo Ships Marlborough, 4,000 tons and 800-horse power; Frederick William, 3241 tons, and 500-horse power ; and R<syal George, 2,616 tons, and 400-horse power, have been surveyed, and, in the event of the country being engaged iv hostilities, are destined for hospital ships of the fleet.

The Twin-screw Gunboat Bustard was launched on January 7 by Messrs. R. Napier and Sons from their building-yard at Govan. She is the first of the new class of gunboats adopted by the Admiralty for river and..coast purposes that has been built on the Clyde. Her length is S5 feet ; breadth, 26 feet; depth, 8 feet 9 inches ; burthen, 245 tons b.m. ; engines, 28 nominal h.p. The armament consists of one 18-ton gun, mounted on a platform forward, which works within a " well" formed by iron-plate bulk-heads —into which " well " the gun is lowered when being loaded, thereby protecting it and the gunner —and raised to deliver its fire.

It has been resolved to establish in England a society to be called the " Infant Life Protection Society," on the model of similar socities in France, having for its first object the introduction of a bill into Parliament for the registration and supervision of nurses who receive children of others into their homes, and of tho children entrusted to their care.