Sanford to William H. Seward, January 14, 1864

Mr. Sanford to Mr. Seward.

Sir: I have the honor to enclose herewith some data I have collected with regard to the recruiting system in this country, and with especial reference to cases of exemptions, as likely to be of use at this moment when our law on the subject is being revised.

I have thought that, in this connexion, some details touching the systems of France and Prussia, and their workings, would not be without interest and perhaps value, and have accordingly included them in the accompanying paper.

I have the honor to be, with great respect, your most obedient servant,

System of recruiting in Belgium.

The present legislation on the military service in Belgium, which is based on the law of the 8th January, 1817, consists in no less than twelve laws, besides numerous royal decrees and a large number of administrative regulations. The consequence is that it is far from being as clear as might be desired, and meets with great difficulties in its application.

On the other hand, reforms having been loudly called for, the government, after taking the opinion of a special committee, has brought forward a bill, of which a copy is herewith annexed, revising the laws relative to military service. In this bill the existing fundamental principles have been maintained, a long experience having proved their superiority over all other systems recommended.

In summing up the provisions of the law now in vigor, the alterations introduced by the bill referred to will be vindicated.

The Belgian army is recruited by drafts and voluntary enlistments; it consists—

1st. Of the effective force maintained under arms.

2d. Of the men who are left at or sent home on furlough.

By the terms of article 119 of the constitution the contingent of the army is voted annually by the Chambers; the law which regulates it is in force for one year only.

The contingent of the army is fixed at 80,000 men, but the effective force at present, as stated in the budget, amounts only to 35,000 men, 11,000 of whom are volunteers and 24,000 conscripts. They early contingent of the levy has been fixed for upwards of twenty years at a maximum of 10,000 men.

The contingent is furnished by drawing by lots from among all young men, Belgians, married or unmarried, who on the 1st of January of each year have attained their nineteenth year. All foreigners who have attained their naturalization before accomplishing their twenty sixth year are subject to the draft, and also all foreigners who, born in Belgium of foreign parents, claim the quality of Belgians according to art. 13 of the “code civil.”

The annual levy is distributed among the provinces and communes in proportion to the number of men inscribed for the levy, deduction being made of those who are in the service as volunteers.

Every person has the right to furnish a substitute (remplicant) in lieu of service, or to exchange numbers with another on the same list (substitut) under conditions securing their respectability and fitness for service. The person furnishing a substitute is responsible for him during the whole time of service; he. may, however, free himself from this responsibility on condition of paying into the treasury the sum of 150 florins, ($60.)

The term of service is eight years, but more than half that time is spent on furlough. Those in the infantry generally serve only two years and a half; in the artillery three or four years, and those in the cavalry four or five years.

The number of young men inscribed each year for the draft is, on an average, about 44,000. After deducting the final and temporary exemptions, the figure of 44,000 is reduced to about 28,000; the exceptions granted, therefore, amount to about thirty-six per cent. of the yearly contingent. Belgium could, however, whilst repecting vested rights, put on foot every year about 30,000 young soldiers, i. e., three times the amount of levy made for more than twenty years past.

Exemptions.

Exemptions are temporary or definitive; they are physical defects or family relations. Physical defects are decided upon by medical men, and exemptions granted on the production of documents signed by the burgomaster and two members of the common council. The letter of the law must be strictly held to with regard to exemptions; they can under no pretext be extended by analogy. Where parentage is a cause of exemption it must be legitimate.

Persons condemned to infamous punishment cannot be admitted into the army unless they have been legally rehabilitated.

Definitive exemptions are given to—

1st. Those who, having attained the age of twenty-two, are below one metre 570 millimetre in height.

2d. Those who, by reason of deformity or incurable infirmity, are forever unfitted for military service.

3d. Those who prove, by a regular and final discharge, that they have been released from the land or sea service on account of infirmities.

4th. The ministers of different religions.

5th. The brothers of those who have accomplished their term of service, or who have been discharged for physical defects contracted in and by the service, or who have died in the service. This provision is not applicable to the case of “substitution.”

6th. The brothers of those who, having furnished a substitute, have freed themselves from all responsibility on that head, or whose substitutes, having accomplished their term of service, have been discharged; for bodily defects contracted in the performance of their duty, or who have died in the service.

7th. Volunteers who have served the term required by law.

8th. Foreigners belonging to a country where Belgians are not liable to military service.

Temporary exemptions.

The following are exempted for one year:

1st. Those who have been condemned to an infamous punishment.

2d. Those who are less than one metre.570 centimetre in height, and who are judged by the military board unfit for the transport service.||

3d. Those having temporary infirmities who are decided to be unfit to serve in the course of the year.|| Those subject to temporary diseases or infirmities are not exempted from the service, but they cannot be employed on active duty before they are perfectly cured. They are, nevertheless, placed at the disposal of the provincial commandant to be assigned to a military corps, and sent, if necessary, to the hospital for treatment.

4th. The only brother of him or those who are struck with palsy, blindness, total insanity, or infirmities presumed to be incurable.

5th. The only unmarried brother in a family, provided he lives with his father and mother, or the survivor of the two, if he provides for their support by his labors, and if that labor is indispensable thereto.

6th. Divinity students. They must present every year to the military board a certificate establishing that they are really students in divinity with the intention of following the clerical profession. Those who, after accomplishing their twenty-third year, have not embraced the clerical profession or taken orders are obliged to serve during five years or to furnish a substitute.

7th. Those who are serving in the land or sea forces, including the cadets of the military schools. The cadets who, before attaining the age of twenty-three, leave the service of their own free will and without having obtained the rank of officer, shall be, as in the case of students in divinity, who at that age have not taken orders, bound to serve on the same footing as the latter. The students attached to the large hospitals of the kingdom are included in the same group as those of the military schools.

8th. Seamen by profession who make long voyages, (de long cours,) those are considered such who have been engaged in that profession on board a merchant vessel, or a vessel fitted out for whale fishing during at least the two last years before being enrolled, and who are still engaged in it. This exemption ceases in case of a war; if they have not yet completed their twenty-third, year they are liable to be immediately called into service.

9th. That son, or, in case of the death of the parents, that grandson of a widow, or of a woman legally separated, or divorced, or abandoned, four years, who provides by the work of his hands for the support of his mother or grandmother. This exemption does not obtain when the mother or grandmother is engaged in any trade or profession by means of which she can earn her living. This exemption only applies to one of the sons or grandsons.

10th. Widowers having one or several children, provided these children be not brought up in charitable establishments.

11th. Only children born in lawful wedlock, if they are the support of their parents, or the latter being deceased, of their grandfathers or grandmothers, in the manner and according to the provisions mentioned.

12th. The only son, who is at the same time an only child legitimate.

13th. That brother or half brother of orphans who has to provide for the sustenance of his brothers and sisters who have no means left for their own maintenance, provided there be no other exempted for the same motive.

14th. He whose only brother or half brother is, either in person or by replacing a substitute, in active service in the land or naval forces in a rank inferor to that of sub-lieutenant, or should have been drafted.

When the sons in a family are even numbers, only half are called to the service; when the number is odd, the uncalled for shall exceed by one the number of those called. Thus, should there be three sons in a family, only one is liable to serve; should there be five, two only, &c., &c.

15th. Persons under arrest, whose cases are pending before the courts and have not been decided before the opening of the fourth sitting of the military board.

16th. Those in prison for police offences whose term of imprisonment has not yet expired.

The brother of a substitute is not exempted.

The brother of him who exchanges a number with another is only exempted when the number which has been exchanged against a lower one shall have been called to service.

Article 24 of the bill on military service introduces a modification in the present legislation, it is as follows:

“In the cases provided for by the present law, the drafted soldier acquires, by the death of a member of his family, the same right to exemption as if the death had occurred before his designation for service.

“This provision does not apply to volunteers, substitutes, or refractory soldiers.

“The claim must be addressed to the governor of the province accompanied with vouchers.

“Should the claim be admitted by the permanent committee of the provincial council, the soldier is henceforth exempted from service.”

This provision is important; in France motives for exemption are only admitted when they exist before the draft and mustering in.

B.

Royal decree of January 19, 1861.

SCHEDULES OF DISEASES AND INFIRMITIES WHICH CAN NOW CAUSE EXEMPTION FROM MILITARY SERVICE.

Schedule I.

Diseases and infirmities admitting immediate or definitive exemption from the mere fact of their existence. (Law of January 8, 1817, art. 91, letter B:)

1. Total blindness, or loss of a single eye, or of its use, owing to another cause besides amaurosis.

N. B.—The medical man shall specify, as far as possible, for each case, the organic cause of the infirmity.

2. Total loss of the nose.

3. Hare lip; loss or want of a part of the roof of the palate.

4. General decay of the teeth; loss of the upper or lower cutting and eye teeth, or of all the grinders of both jaws.

5. Dumbness, owing to a defective formation of the tongue, or the loss of a part of that organ.

6. Loss of the whole or a great part of the ear.

7. Deafness, owing to the absence, obliteration, accidental or congenital, of the outward auricular passages.

8. Great deformities of the face, broad, livid, hairy, or hideous spots.

9. Very large goitre.

10. Herniæ.

11. Loss of penis or testicles.

12. Epispadias, hupospadias, situated in the middle or at the root of the penis; hermaphrodium.

13. Permanent retention of the testicle at the ring, or in the lower part, of the inguinal canal.

14. Artificial arms.

15. Loss of an arm, leg, foot, or hand, or incurable loss of the motion of these parts.

16. Thoroughly characterized atrophy of the limb.

17. Permanent contraction of the extensor, or bending muscles of a limb.

18. Aneurism of the arteries of the neck, or of the principal arterial trunk of the limb.

19. Spina ventosa, osteosariosm, and other serious diseases of the bones.

20. Crookedness of the long bones, or rachilis, carried so far as to hinder the motion of the limb.

21. Decided lameness.

22. Total loss of forefinger of the right hand; total or partial loss of a thumb or great toe; of two fingers of the same hand, or two toes of the same foot; irremediable loss of the motion of the same parts.

23. Flat feet.

N. B.—Flattened feet not to be confounded with flat feet. The latter alone entitle to immediate and definitive exemption.

Schedule II.

Diseases or infirmities which may give rise to definitive or temporary exemption. (Law of January 8, 1817, art. 91, letter B; art. 94, letter B B, § 1.)

1. Extensive injury to the skull.

2. Deformity to the nose to such extent as to render the aspect repulsive, or habitually to hinder breathing.

3. Caries of the bones of the nasal cavities, or of the roof of the palate; polypus of the nose.

4. Deformity of a jaw from loss of substance narosis, or any other cause capable of habitually hindering mastication.

5. Fistulæ of the maxillary sinus.

6. Difficulty of swallowing, proceeding from an habitual obstacle to the free passage of food.

7. Sarcocelus, hydrocelus, varicocelus, in so far as to impede locomotion, and other serious affection of the testicle, spermatic chords, or scrotum.

8. Deformities, or affection of the feet, hands, limbs, or other parts of the body, capable of rendering walking difficult, the handling of weapons difficult, or of preventing the carrying of the whole or part of the equipment. The superposition of the toes, so far as it can hinder walking; alopecia, bowlegs, or knock-knees, in excess, are also excluded.

9. Extensive adhering, tender scars, impeding the performance of movements.

10. Voluminous and multiplied varicose veins.

11. Weakness or deterioration of the constitution.

N. B.—Constitutional weakness entitles to postponement only.

Schedule III.

Diseases, or infirmities, entitling to an exemption for one year, or to examination by the provincial commandant, in order that those suffering from them, or who petition on account of their existence, may be sent, if necessary, to the hospital. (Law of January 8, 1817, art. 94, letter B B, § 3:)

1. Amaurosis of both eyes, or of one eye.

2. Weakness of the visual faculty, permanent defects of the sight, preventing from sufficiently distinguishing objects, or in so far as is required by military service, such as short-sightedness, nyclalopia, hemeralopia, dylopia, presbytia.

N. B.—Those who can clearly distinguish objects near at hand with the help of short-sighted spectacles, bearing Nos. 2 and 3, or distant objects, with the help of spectacles No. 6, may be considered as short-sighted.

3. Chronic ophthalmia, frequent fluxions of the eyes, habitual diseases of the eyelids, or of the lachrymal conduits.

4. Fetid and obstinate ulcers of the nasal organs.

5. Salivary fistulas.

6. Habitually fetid breath.

7. Dumbness; permanent aphonia, owing to other causes than those mentioned in schedule I.

8. Permanent defects or affections of the organs of speech, of the voice, and hearing, carried so far as to hinder their functions.

9. Fetid runnings from the ear.

10. Pulmonary consumption, and other serious affections of the pectoral organs.

11. Internal aneurisms.

12. Dropsy of the abdomen, (ascitis;) swelling of the abdomal organs.

13. Vesical caculi, gravel, habitual incontinence or frequent retention of the urine, urinary fistula, and other diseases or injuries of the urinary conduits.

14. Voluminous or ulcerous hemorrhoids, abundant or habitual hemorrhoidal flux, incontinence of the fœcal matter, prolapsa of the anus, habitual restriction of the anus, fistula of the anus.

15. Habitually offensive, whether partial or general, perspiration.

16. Inveterate cutaneous affection, congenital or acquired, scab, raw, damp and extensive tetters, obstinate itch, elphantasis.

17. Scorrhus, cancer, inveterate or bad ulcers.

18. Decided cacheta, scrofulous, scorbutic, or syphilitic condition.

19. Epilepsy, general or partial, convulsive movements, habitual tremor of the whole body or of a limb.

20. Mental derangement of any kind, insufficiency of the understanding.

Results of the levy for the years 1859 to 1861.

SYSTEM OF RECRUITING IN FRANCE.

The organization of the French army is based upon three distinct provisions of law:

1st. The law passed March 21, 1832, establishing the principle that every Frenchman is liable to respond to a call in defence of his country, and that none but Frenchmen are admissible into the army.

2d. The law fixing annually the number of recruits to be levied.

3d. The annual appropriation act which fixes the number of men to be maintained in active service, and the number of those to be called for.

The French army is recruited by drafting, voluntary enlistments, and re-engagements of veteran soldiers, and is composed of—

1st. The effective force maintained under arms.

2d. The reserve, comprising the contingent not yet called in, and those who are sent home in anticipation of the expiration of their term of service.

The annual levies are raised by drafts; every Frenchman who has attained his twentieth year within the preceding twelve months is bound to present himself to the authorities of his district. The draft is made by cantons, and the number of men furnished by the department and by canton is in proportion to the number inscribed on the service rolls of each canton.

Up to the year 1830 the annual contingent was based on the population; from 1831 to 1835 the proportion was graduated according to the average of young men inscribed on the conscription lists of a certain number of years preceding.Since 1836 the basis is no longer upon such average, but upon a list of the year.

The annual levy in ordinary times is fixed at 80,000 men.

The number of men registered for drafting averages annually about 300,000.

The number of young men enrolled was—

According to M. Leon Lalanne, it is calculated that, owing to the number of exemptions, about 175,000 men must be drawn to form a contingent of 80,000 soldiers. In other words, 100 men have to be drafted in order to secure 46 fit for service. In the department of Lozere and Dordogne 73 men in 100 drafted were exempted. Notwithstanding this, says M. Lalanne, France could raise annually 132,000 recruits, taking into consideration all kinds of exemptions, and respecting the rights and satisfying the interests of all concerned.

The legal service of a soldier is fixed at 7 years, counting from the 1st of January after his 20th birthday.

Under the law of March 21, 1832, the young soldier is permitted to furnish a substitute, subject, however, to rigorous conditions as to morality and aptitude for service.

This system of substitution obtains only in practice, at present, with regard to brothers, brothers-in-law, and relations up to the fourth degree. Moreover, by the law of April 26, 1855, modified by act of July 24, 1860, the exemption from service can be secured at a fixed sum, which is applied to a fund for enlisting veteran soldiers, by re-engaging at the end of their service as substitutes. These re-engagements are for terms of not less than two years, and not more than seven years.

Substitutes can be entered on the registers of the districts where they present themselves in lieu of drafted men, provided they are admitted as fit for service by the military board.

Young men of proper size, health, and morality can enter as volunteers at the age of 16 in the navy, and at the age of 18 in the army.

The reserve is formed of men who, although comprised in the levy, have not been called upon to join their regiments, and are consequently not in active service, and of such soldiers who have been granted furloughs, in anticipation of the expiration of their legal term of service.

Exemptions and exclusions.

The following are excluded from military service, and can serve in no form in the army:

1. Those who have been subjected by an infamous or afflictive punishment.

2. Those who have been condemned for misdemeanors to an imprisonment of two or more years, and have, moreover, been placed under surveillance of the police, and have lost their civil and family rights.

The following are exempted, and are placed in the contingent of young men who have been drafted, but who fall within the following conditions: (Article 13, law of March 21, 1832.)

1. Those who are less than 1,560 metres in height.

2. Those afflicted with an infirmity rendering them unfit for service.

3. The eldest of orphan children, having lost both father and mother.

4. The only son, or the eldest son, or where there is no son-in-law, the only grandson, or the eldest grandson of a widow, and who is still such; of a father who is blind or incompetent to take care of himself.

In the cases provided for in Nos. 3 and 4, the younger is exempted if the elder brother is blind or incompetent.

5. The eldest of two brothers, when both are enrolled and drafted at the same time, provided the younger is fit for service.

6. When another brother is serving otherwise than as a substitute.

7. He whose brother has died in active service, or has been honorably discharged or permitted to quit the service on account of wounds received in the execution of orders, or on account of infirmities contracted in the army or navy service.

The exemptions granted in the cases cited in Nos. 6 and 7 supra apply in the same family as many times as the same causes occur; exemptions already granted in favor of living brothers, by virtue of this article, being, however, deducted, except in cases of infirmity.

Those absent, or not duly represented at the draft of their class, cannot claim the exemptions indicated in Nos. 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 of this article, if the causes for these exemptions have only arisen after the close of the rolls forming the contingent of their class.

Those coming within the following conditions are considered as having purged their liability to draft, and their names are struck from the rolls. (Art. 14, law of 31st March, 1832.)

1. Those who are actually in the land or naval forces, provided they have enlisted for a term of seven years.

2. Registered seamen, and ship carpenters, sailmakers, &c., upon the lists of the maritime inscriptions.

3. Pupils of the “Ecole Polytechnique,” provided they are present at that institution and enlisted in the public service for a term of seven years.

4. Members of public institutions who have engaged themselves before being drafted, to follow the profession of instructors, also pupils of the central normal schools at Paris; those of the schools called jeune de langues and the professors of deaf and dumb asylums.

5. Pupils of the large seminaries authorized for ecclesiastical (Catholic( studies; young men authorized to follow studies for the ministry of other beliefs, salaried by the state, under condition, as regards the former, that they shall be held to service if they do not enter holy orders on attaining the age of twenty-five, and with regard to the latter, if they have not been consecrated within the year after the term when they could have obtained the same.

6. Young men who receive the great prizes at the institute or the university.

Young men who have drawn numbers, placing them in the contingent, but have been exempted conditionally by virtue of the stipulations of Nos. 1, 3, 4, 5, shall, when they cease to follow the vocation which exempted them, notify such by a declaration to the mayor of their district within the year when they ceased to be in the service, employment, or studies, and receive a copy of such declaration.

Failing to make such declaration and to get it vise by the prefet of the department within one month, they are liable to the penalties indicated in the first paragraph of art. 38 of law of 21st March, 1832. They will be replaced in the contingent of their class, without any deduction for the time elapsed from the cessation of their services, employment, or studies, up to the time of declaration.

In the case of exemptions on account of infirmities professional men are consulted. Other cases of exemption or deduction are decided upon the production of authenticated documents, or in default thereof, upon certificates signed by three heads of families, domiciled in the same canton, whose sons are liable to draft or have been drafted.

These certificates must, moreover, be signed and approved by the mayor of the commune of the person seeking exemption.

SYSTEM OF RECRUITING IN PRUSSIA.

Unlike the practice which obtains in most countries of Europe of recruiting by conscription, military service in Prussia is compulsory upon all, and without the chances of a draft or the privilege of furnishing a substitute.

The basis of the Prussian system is the law of 3d September, 1814, by which every Prussian is bound to military service from the age of 17 to 49.

During this period the service is divided as follows:

From the age of 20 to 25 (except in Westphalia, where it begins at 21,) every Prussian is liable to be called out for active service; as a rule, however, he remains only three years with his regiment; during the remaining two, in time of peace, he is sent home and placed in the “reserve.”

From the age of 25 to 32 he serves in the “Landwehr,” first class; and for a further term of seven years, say from 32 to 39, he remains enrolled in the “Landwehr” of the second class.

In time of war and great emergency every man is liable up to his 49th year to serve in the home guard, (Landsturm,) beginning, as above stated, at the age of 17.

The duration of service is calculated from the date of entering the army, so that if he present himself at an earlier age than required by law the time is deducted,

Liability to serve dates from the 1st of January of the year of arriving at the age of 20.

Those who have been educated at a military school or at the institute of noncommissioned officers must remain in active service beyond the usual three years—two years additional, if they were educated entirely at the public expense, or one year if partially.

Those who volunteer before the age of 20, and are able to equip and keep themselves, and capable of passing a specified examination, remain for a term of one year only with their regiment, which is considered as equivalent to active service of three years.

The present government of Prussia proposes to extend the term of actual service to four years, and to augment the contingent of the standing army, whilst the liberal party contend for a diminution of the contingent, as well as a reduction of the time of service, from three to two years. This conflict is still going on, but up to this date no change has been made.

The government bases its proposition upon the fact that the army has not kept pace with the population. The annual levy has varied for the past thirty years from 60,000 to 63,000 men. This number, under the law of 3d September, 1814, was based upon the then existing census; thus, in 1816, Prussia had a population of 10,136,000 inhabitants, the levy amounting to 125 per cent.; it has now a population of 18,210,000, and the levy amounts to 112 per cent.

According to Dieterici, Handbuch der Statistik des Preussischen Staates, the Prussian army in active service in 1855 was 165,537 men; of these the service requires a renewal of one-third every year. The number of recruits required annually is, therefore, 55,179 men, while by the census of the same year, 1855, the number of young men of the age of twenty in the Prussian monarchy amounted to 147,614; about one-third, however, are found unfit for service, or exempted on other grounds.

The following data of population, &c., taken from Witsleben Heerwesen der Preussechen Armee, (1864, page 64,) are interesting in this connexion:

The following table shows the relative percentage of the preceding statement, compared with the average during the previous years, from 1831 to 1854:

Exclusions and Exemptions,

They are definitive and temporary; certain conditions, or temporary service, suffice, in some cases, to entitle to a furlough, with liability to be called upon at any time to join their regiments.

Those who have undergone infamous or afflictive punishments are excluded from the army, and those who have lost civil or civic rights, if the loss of the latter be temporary only, this cause of exemption is valid only until legal rehabilitation. If not rehabilitated on attaining the twenty-third year, such persons are incorporated in disciplinary companies as laborers.

Those who wilfully disable or mutilate themselves, with the view of avoiding service, are treated in the same manner.

Conditional exemptions are granted to Quakers and Mennonites.

§ 14 of the law of December 9, 1858, stipulates that those immigrating from other German states shall be exempted from service, provided they have complied with the laws of their state on the subject; but that they shall be, on becoming residents in Prussia, incorporated in the reserve, and be liable to serve in the “Landwehr.”

Foreigners emigrating from other countries than German states are liable to service according to their age, no matter whether they have served at their former homes or not.

Those who live in Prussia, without being naturalized as citizens, shall not be called on nor be admitted into the service.

Temporary and conditional exemptions are granted to pupils of seminaries, and tutors of the same, on condition that they join once, for a period of six weeks, a regiment, after which they are exempted from farther service.

The same exemption is accorded to those who, at the time of the call, are studying at the seminary of Guadenfred and the college of Wielski; also, those of the Jewish college at Minister, provided they bring testimonials showing their fitness for holy orders.

Those who serve as attendants in military hospitals for a term of one year are exempted from farther service, but remain four years with the reserve, and are afterwards liable to service in the “Landwehr.”

Those who have served six months in the military train or transport service are held to serve the remaining portion of their time in the reserve, or “Landwehr,” if required.

Those enlisting for service in the navy are subject to the same rules; they remain in the first class from the age of 20 to 25, in the second from 25 to 32, and in the third from 32 to 39.

Those found to be under size, i.e., below five feet, (Rhenish measure,) are put back into the next class, and the military board decides whether the men are definitively exempted or held at disposal, in which latter case “the men are liable to be called in case of war.

With regard to size, the lowest for regiments of guards is 5 feet 5 inches, for one-fourth; another fourth must have at least 5 feet 6 inches, and the remaining one-half at least 5 feet 7 inches and more.

For infantry, the size is 5 feet 2 inches, and 5 feet by exception, if the man be otherwise robust.

For fusileer companies, such men who show natural agility, aptitude, &c., are selected; size as above.

Riflemen, as a rule, must not be less than 5 feet 2 inches, and not above 5 feet 7 inches; some exceptions are admitted at 5 feet.

The same stipulations obtain with regard to the soldiers for the military train.

The fitness for service is determined by professional men, but their decision is not binding on the commission appointed for examination.

In cases of infirmity the reports of the surgeons are subject to the confirmation of the military board, which alone decides whether a man is to be definitively discharged, or, unless he suffers from incurable infirmity, is to be held at the disposal of the military authorities, as provided in the preceding paragraph.

The following provisions to exemptions are made for persons who shall be “favorably considered,” or are recommended for temporary exemption:

1. Those who, in the opinion of the examination board, are the support of families which might otherwise be subjected to want.

2. The only son of a widow, when there is no other member of the family to provide for her or her family.

3. Persons who inherit, or unexpectedly acquire otherwise than by purchase, property which they cannot leave in the hands of others, without detriment to their interests, provided such property is of sufficient value to furnish the means of living.

4. Tenants of crown lands, or other real estate, whose lease, owing to the death of a parent or relative, or other circumstance, must be renewed, and the occupation of which cannot be ceded to another without prejudice to the property.

5. Owners of factories, or other industrial establishments, who are employing a number of workmen, and cannot find a manager to take their place, provided they have not actually acquired the property by purchase at the time when liable to serve.

6. Those who, as sons of disabled parents, are considered as the only and necessary assistants for the management of their property, whether real or personal, factories, &c., provided they are unable to procure elsewhere the necessary assistance.

If it should turn out that the conditions indicated in the foregoing six paragraphs result from purchase, leasing, or transfer of property by the free will of the parties, the exemptions are inadmissible. As a rule, no one liable to serve shall, before having satisfied the provisions of the law, enter into any engagements which tend to preclude, or render difficult, compliance with the terms of the law.

Marriage contracted before the time of service is no cause of exemption from service.

All temporary exemptions are granted, as a rule, for one year only.

Exemptions are also accorded—

1. To those who bring indubitable proof of being engaged in acquiring the knowledge of a profession, or art, the result of which would be seriously affected by interruption of the studies.

2. Pupils of the industrial schools at Berlin.

3. Pupils of the medical school.

4. Pupils of veterinary schools.

On the 15th January, each year, the parish priest must send in a minute of the births in his district for the past year. The local authorities make up from these registers a list of all individuals who have attained the seventeenth year, and these are entered on the rolls.

Registers are also kept of those persons who have a legal residence in the district, or who, without being born in the district, are domiciled as servants, managers, clerks, apprentices, students, or pupils.