THE RUSSIAN ARMY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 189, 10 November 1876, Page 9

THE RUSSIAN ARMY.

Russia has not been behindhand in the gr^at race of military improvement which has been so general m Europe in later years, and she is now spending more money upon her army than nny* Power of the Continent, if we except the large sums that France is devoting to the remantling of her fortresses. For Russia has adopted the compulsory system of Germany, and her large population will tend to make that system in time especially formidable. Military service is obligatory in the twentieth year, and no less than 700 000 youths annually attain the prescribed age. And Russia has gone ahead of Germany in the military claim that the State lays upon the people • for every man is subject to military service for twenty years viz * six years in the ranks, nine in the reserve, and five in the Opolehengi or second reserve. Of the large number of young men who annually attain the prescribed age 420,000 are found available for militaryservice. At first only about 150,000 really passed into the army, but the six years of active service was found to press so heavily that it is reduced. The effect will only be to pass more men through the ranks, and to increase in the course of time the formidable numbers of the Russian army. Any calculation founded upon a system that is constantly changing must evidently be uncertain, and as the new Russian system has only recently been introduced, it must take eighteen more years to pire it a full development. But there can be no doubt that, unless political difficulties should call for its action before its organisation, the Russian army will become the most terrible embodiment of military power the world has ever seen. The cadres before the newsystem was carried out were by no means adequate for the large number of trained men that will be produced, and fresh cadres are being added. Russia has then a field army of 612 battalions, 56 regiments of cavalry, 1,400 field guns, and 400 mitrailleuses. This did^iot include her reserve batallions, garrison battalions, and frontier forces which number 56 squadrons, 153 battalions, and 16 batteries in addition. Nor does this include the large number of Cossacks and irregulars who are employed in maintaining the extended Russian frontier, and are computed at over 400,000 mounted men. And we must not imagine that the Cossack is a mere wild irregular horseman, for many of these frontier Cossacks are amongst the finest and best-disciplined, men in the Russian service. They do all the orderly work both for the civil and military officers, who supervise with such marvellous precision the immense and sterile territory which owns the Russian sway. They are planted in large and growing colonies all alonoher extended frontier, and thus military ideas and habits are nurtured from their earliest youth. Near the old Circassian boundary their services have become almost a dead letter, and Russian officers complain that the speciality for the performance of outpost work, which resulted from constant practice and incessant watchfulness, is passing away in the new generation. In fact, the organisation of this mass of irregulars is one of the most serious questions now occupying the attention of the Russian staff ; for it is felt that they may become a cumbrous body of indifferent cavalry, instead of the active and useful horsemen that have been of such oreat service in the past military history of the country. Russia is taking successful Germany as her great model in the new organisation ; but a military system is nob built up in a day or two, and Russia, like France, requires time. The difficulties which existed in introducing obligatory service over widely extended, and in many instances recently conquered, dominions have been surmounted with great judgment and considerable success. 'The World.'

Two handsome stained-glass windows have recently been erected in the apse of Douglas parish church, County Cork, in memory of the Rev. D. Canon Foley, the late parish priest, by the parishioners and other friends. The subjects are — The Sacred Heart, and the Blessed Mother of God. A large painting of the Crucifixion, executed by Mr. F. B. Cunningham, has been also presented to Dougljs church by Alderman Hegarty, as a memorial of a near relative interred in the adjoining cemetery. The sacred subject is rendered nearly life-size, and has merits as a work of religious art. Including the massive gilt frame, the picture measures 10 feet by 7 feet.