PRUSSIA.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume IX, Issue 443, 3 January 1867, Page 2 (Supplement)

PRUSSIA.

THE PRUSSIAN MILITARY SECRET. Is. applying the. impressive lesson of ths German war a careful observer ot events would at once coada.dc that the 'ailitary dreagtli of Prussia ssurt depend apoo a secret. What is this country which has just cradled a strong Confederacy with one arm and smitten down a powerful monarchy with the other ? His a country with - population of 18,500,000, or less than the copulation or England aud Wales alone. It has a revenue of ASO.IK.'O.O'JII, or loss than cue third of the revenue of Great .Britain. Out of these resources itmain-ulilir-n; an Jinny --n ■ -- " - V:r: : :r;j r:: ' : ;;:: ; men —sc nearly the number of our own regular forces as possible. Thus far, then, we see that the military establishments of Prussia were not larger than ours, though they were far cheaper; and »c may eveu proceed further in these eobuiatioas and comparisons without finding any material contrasts on the surface of the figures. Every reader re l .';': that Prussia had an enurmeus force in reserve, but perhaps every reader does not know that, the reserves of our own army are at least as large. The Prussian army, on a war footing, was reckoned at 609,000 men, while there were still available in the last resort about 100,000 more. These 700,000 troops constitute, it must be owned, a most formidable array ; but we find in an official publication issued from the Statistical Department of the War Office that the war establishment of our own army amounts to no Ibss than 769,630 men; so that in regular forces and reserves together we have the advantage even over that Power which has just astounded Europe by the magnitude of its armaments. But would our armaments prove as effective ? We leave that question without reply ; but if it is to be answered in the negative, as nobody would consider a British array inferior to a Prussian army soldier for soldier, it follows at once that the difference between the two establishments must consist in the quality of their reserves. Here, indeed, lies the true secret of Prussia’s military strength, and a secret in its origin it really was; though it has heeu employed so long, and with such notorious SUCcCaS, J that it ought to he neither a mystery nor a monopoly any longer. Sixty years since, after the famous battle of Jena, Napoleon imposed upon the defeated Prussians the obligation of limiting their military establishments to a strength of 42,000 men. It was impossible to contradict the Emperor, and not easy, as might be thought, to deceive him, but tlie device was accomplished by Scharnhorst, the War Minister of the time, who not only evaded the decree of Napoleon, but laid the foundations of that military strength which has just been displayed iu a career of unexampled triumph. Scharnhorst did restrict the actual or visible army of Prussia to the specified numbers, but he kept this army in a state of perpetual change. Its constitution never remained the same for twelve months together, but resembled the waters of a lake which receives a river at one end and discharges it at the other. As soon as a recruit was thoroughly drilled, and had become an effective soldier, he was dismissed to his home, and a fresh recruit was received in his place, to be again disciplined and again dismissed. The result of this system was that the standing army became hut a specimen corps of an army of soldiers. Eor every soldier in tlie ranks there were five as good as he in the body of tlie people, all ready at the first call of the trumpet to re-enter the line of the army. When, therefore, seven years after her great defeat, Prussia once more rose, a force of 200,000 men, admirably disciplined, appeared in the place of one which Napoleon believed he had cut down to one-fifth of that number. The Prussians were not ungrateful to their benefactor. To this day the statue of Scharnhorst in white marble stands by the side of the great guard-house in the great thoroughfare of Berlin—a record of military sagacity, as well as national fame. The secret, then, of the Prussian strength consists in this, that the reserve force is practically as good as the force in the field. The regular army merely represents a portion of the entire army on duty for the time. The reserves are simply troops not on duty, hut just as competent for duty if their services should be required. By this light let us examine our own reserves. In British Militia, British Volunteers, British Yeomanry, and British Reserves generally, we have a force of between 360,000 and 400,000'men actually within the limits of these Isles. There is, certainly, at first sight, no reason why this force should not be made as effective as the Landwchr or Landsturra of Prussia. A Prussian soldier is made by a service of five years, commencing at the age of 21. But of this short term of service, one-half only is passed in the regular army, tlie other half being spent in the army of reserve. No doubt this is more Training, or at any rate more effective training, than is given to our Militia; but if tlie Prussian Landwchr could, at a few weeks’ notice, fight their way from their own country to the very walls of Vienna, the British Militia should surely be as competent for the less trying work of a home campaign. We say that such Volunteers as have been reviewed at York and in Hyde Park cannot be the inferiors of these men, and that our Militia can need but little to make their training just as efficient. Is there not a method by which this little could be added ? We are disconcerted now, year alter year, at the loss of some of the best soldiers from the regular army. A recruit enlists for ten years. At the expiration of that time he may claim his discharge, and about 50 per cent, generally do so. We make every effort to retain these men and prevent their retirement; but would it not be a better plan if we encouraged such retirement even at an earlier period, on condition that the retiring soldier entered our army of reserve—that is, the Militia? Service in the Militia is certainly not onerous, and it might easily be made attractive. Here is the secret of Prussian strength—short service, to be resumed if necessary. If such a secret has beaten Austria and conquered Germany, it may well suffice to defend Great Britain.

THE PRUSSIAN PEASANTRY. Let ns look at a Prussian estate and village. They average perhaps 100 inhabitants. The houses are one-storied, highly gabled, with much loftroom, built either of a wooden frame filled in with clay and thatched, or, in later times, of brick and tiles. They are built for two families, and have either a C-Ommon entrance and kitchen with separate hearth, or both separate, with a dwellingroom, a bed-room, and a store-room. They are. as a rule quite as lofty as the rooms in six- or *dght-foOined London houses • wans in and outside whitewashed. Between the houses are, at a small distance, the stables, behind them a small ya. d and a pretty large garden. Man and wife steep in the dwelling-room, the babes in a cradle; the children in the cur tied room ; sometimes them lr-b-~r-siivr a t-.ei xtul, who sleeps wiiii the cniidren — urver lucre ibnr. t av. h- - te=h You -- deal or oak table; behind it along the wall a bench, and about the room a number of-wooden or read chain, rll scrupulously secured if not pahitrl Yva liill ;u:;;-uhc:u * haxr ; lh r, containing linen and clothes; a cabinet conaining loud; on the wa’l a clock, and often other | articles of for niter.?. The bed is very good, there ( knng gencr-tUy two good thick goosc-teati; ;r beds ■ on a of straw, put

100. a into the box-like bedsteads and shaken up every day. A feather-bed covers the sleeper, with two good liaoa sheets, a fancy coverlet, and not unfrennently there are curtains. The stables contain a cow, one or two pigs for killing in autumn, a goose, which will breed them ten to twelve young ones, which are ready for killing in October, ami half-a-dozen to a Ju-ou Lena furutthhig eggs and breeding chiekens. The garden at tiis back yields potatoes, turnips, carrots, and greens enough for tuc summer s cuusumptioa. views and g-asn are, during the summer, sent to graze, whilst pigs and hens are fed at home with household waste and 51UUUU uoin, mo jijga uomg uwucuuuptas towards killing-time. Tlie geese get fat on the cats in the field after harvest, aad a little extra Duricy icediug. Lur luc wuiils el lue winter Uieie is a plot of ground given each laborer in the field for potatoes, and a plot for lia_x, as also a plot yf meadow hay tor Luc cow, straw being furnished Irum the tana as wanted. Eor firing, wood and tiirf ai-B used. The latter is found on almost every estate, and if the former is wanted it must be brought f rom the next forest. Ait eartiug of these things is done by the landlord’s wagons. The laborer is bound to work all tlie year round for the landlord; his wife (or if she cannot work a female servant) a large number of days iu the year. They receive wages, settled monthly, under deduction of a certain number of days for rent of cottages and all tlie benefits enumerated above. As for grain, the men get a per-centage of what they thrash in winter in lieu of wages. This protects them in dearth from high prices; they earn generally more than they want, having some lor sale unless their fiunilies are large. Work may be considered to last from sunrise to sunset—somewhat less in summer and somewhat more iu wallet —with one or two hours’ rest for dinner. But there are always odd hours, after finishing work in one field, when it is not wortli the landlord’s while to go to another task; and then the laborer is left to look after his owu garden, potatoes, flax, hay, and hemp. The winter evenings leave a good . lal of time.

Sapper being done at live or six, t..e w'omen sit down at their wheels, spinning their owu flax and tow and wool, which last they have to buy, into yarn, whicii gradually goes 10 tlie village weaver 10 he woven into tinea lor underclothes, bed and table clothes, sacking, and a mixture 01 linen and wool, of which being first dyed blue, coats and frocks are made—tlie latter mostly at home, tlie former by the village tailor ; wniist socks and gloves, ad wool, are knitted by tile women all tlie year round, and everywhere. Tlie men iu their winter evenings do nothing but pay visits to each other, sitting round the women gossippmg, telling tales, or listening to one of tlie ciiuaren reading aloud books winch the parson, schoolmaster, or squire lends them.