MILITARY ORGANIZATION OF PRUSSIA. 



THE Prussian monarchy, in spite of her vicious delimitation, is, by 

 her interior organization, one of the states whose influence on the 

 political system of Europe is the most remarkable. Floating like a 

 ribband over the surface of continental Europe, from the Oder to the 

 French frontiers Russia threatens her in the east and France in the 

 west, while Austria, by debouching from Bohemia, strikes at her 

 very heart. Warned by the sad experience of the past, and by the 

 geographical configuration of her territory, Prussia feels that her 

 existence as a state depends solely upon her army, and every faculty 

 of the government has, in consequence, been put forth to bring it to 

 the highest degree of perfection of which it is susceptible. Immense 

 sums have also been lavished in the creation of new fortresses, or the 

 improvement of the old ones, and on the repairs and construction of 

 barracks and other military edifices. The new strong places are 

 Cologne, Coblentz, Minden, and Posen ; Stralsun and Smeednitz, 

 which had been dismantled, and Thorn, which is so altered and im- 

 proved that it may be considered as a place of a new creation. 

 Immense repairs and improvements have also been made at Wittem- 

 berg, Erfurt, Torgau, Juliers, and Sarre Louis, and all the other 

 strong places are kept in an excellent state of repair. 



The Prussian engineers have followed in the fortification of the 

 new fortresses, and in the alterations made in the old ones, a new- 

 system, which is attributed to the Prussian General of Engineers 

 Aster, but the idea of which, is in reality borrowed from Montalem- 

 bert. They surround the body of the place with a wall pierced with 

 loopholes and embrasures, or with a revetement capable of resisting 

 a coup de main, and they construct round this envelope forts or 

 simple towers so as to occupy a sufficient space of ground for assem- 

 bling a body of troops destined for an offensive operation. In these 

 constructions masonry predominates ; there is a profusion of case- 

 mated and blinded batteries, souterrains, and loopholed walls. The 

 system appears to have received a complete application in the con- 

 struction of Fort Alexander, which occupies the height of Chartreuse 

 that commands Coblentz, a height situated between the right bank 

 of the Moselle and the left bank of the Rhine. The polygon on 

 which is built the fort is a square. There are two bastions over- 

 looking the country, and two half-bastions on the side of the city. 

 There are only three curtains, and in the place of the fourth, which 

 would have belonged to the front opposite the city there is a defen- 

 sive barrack and a loopholed wall terminated by two bastions. There 

 are casemated batteries and souterraines constructed under the flanks. 

 Before each curtain, in the place of the demi-lune in the system of 

 Vauban, they have built a tower a la Montalembert. These towers 

 have a considerable elevation above the surrounding ground ; they 

 have several stages of batteries, the highest being " a ciel ouvert" for 

 guns of light calibre. These works have not properly speaking 

 " fosses :" the ground is regularly sloped from the crest of the glacis 



