AUSTRIAN EMPIRE. 



261 



been planned to increase their influence, even a 

 the risk of once more receiving a lesson whic 

 must still be too recent to be forgotten. The pro 

 posal to place the whole of the elementary educa 

 tion throughout the empire in the hands of the 

 re-established Jesuits is said to have been recentl' 

 discussed and approved in the council of state, bu 

 delayed, partly perhaps from the apprehension tha 

 the public mind, which is decidedly opposed to th< 

 increase of clerical influence, was not yet suffi 

 ciently prepared for so bold a step. 



The peace establishment of the Austrian army 

 is reported by the Austrian Encyclopaedia to con- 

 sist of 190,000 men, infantry 38,685 men, cavalry 

 and 17,800 men, artillery, exclusively of the 

 staff, engineers, six garrison battalions, and seven 

 military frontier regiments, in all 270,000 men. 

 This force can be raised in time of war to 750,OOC 

 men, by calling out the militia battalions of each 

 regiment, the reserve, and what is called the Hun- 

 garian Insurrection. 



For the recruiting of these forces the whole em- 

 pire is divided into recruiting districts, the depot 

 of each regiment remaining in its appointed spot. 



fThe regiments consist of three battalions of about 

 1200 men each, to which two others must be 

 added, which, under the name of militia battalions, 

 are called out only on extraordinary occasions. 

 The territorial distribution of the recruiting depots 

 is as follows : 



The troops furnished by Croatia and Dalmatia 

 belong to the Hungarian contingent, but are in- 

 cluded in the above survey with Illyria. 



From this sketch it is apparent that the Scla- 

 vonian districts contribute by far the most to the 

 defence of the land ; but although the recruiting 

 takes place in a national manner, and the privates 

 of the different regiments are all countrymen, care 

 is taken that the officers be mixed as much as pos- 

 sible. The privates are in general fine strong men, 

 and the arms and equipments are equal to those of 

 any army but the British. They are drilled with 

 great care, and go through their exercises with pre- 

 cision, but with slower movements than the Prus- 

 sians and Russians ; and it is perhaps on account of 

 the numbers who understand German but imper- 

 fectly, that the assistance of the fiugelmann is still 

 retained to interpret the word of command. Of 

 their artillery the Austrians are proudest. It is cer- 

 tain that it is numerous and well furnished, having 

 counted 1000 pieces of ordnance ready for service 

 when the occupation of the Roman states took 

 place. The recruits pass through a regular course 

 of mathematics, with practical and theoretical gun- 

 nery ; and the corps of bombardiers receives all 

 such as distinguish themselves by skill and talent, 

 from which step they have a prospect of advancing 

 as officers. This branch of the service is the only 

 one which holds out this prospect, for, by a singu- 

 lar arrangement, in a country where the troops are 



raised by conscription, the regulations prohibit such 

 promotion in the other branches. The annual 

 practice at the target with shot and shells of all 

 dimensions takes place in the months of July, 

 August, and September, and is conducted with 

 scrupulous regularity and attention. The rocket 

 corps, under the command of General Augustin, 

 at Wiener Neustadt, have not only much improved 

 the composition applied to this formidable wea- 

 pon, but throw it with wonderful precision and 

 security. 



It would be too much to expect from troops 

 raised under the circumstances in which many of 

 the Austrian provinces are placed, any thing like 

 the spirit or amour propre, which prevails in the 

 armies of France and Prussia. The whole system 

 of discipline and treatment of the men is also dif- 

 ferent from what is in use among the other Ger- 

 man states; the cat-o'-nine-tails being in almost 

 unceasing employment, and not being looked on in 

 the same degrading light as in other services. But 

 the absence of this susceptibility is considered to 

 be compensated for by a certain steadiness and un- 

 inquiring submission which prevail among the men, 

 and which render them useful instruments for the 

 government. A striking proof of this obedient 

 disposition, and not less so of the security with 

 which the government relies upon it, was afforded 

 on the late occupation of Cracow, when the militia 

 battalion of a Polish regiment formed part of the 

 corps ordered upon that expedition. 



The amount of the army estimates, as indeed 

 that of every branch of the public expenditure in 

 Austria, is one of the state secrets, and it would 

 be useless to attempt calculating it, as the precise 

 number of troops kept on foot is never known, and 

 varies considerably even in time of peace. There 

 are reasons, however, for believing that this de- 

 partment is managed with a greater attention to 

 economy than any other. That the war-office 

 jxercises a more effective control over its agents 

 han the civil boards can do, is perhaps owing to 

 the strict attention paid to seniority in the service 

 n all promotions above the rank of colonel. This 

 naturally throws a number of men together who 

 are actuated by a spirit of rivalry towards each 

 other, but who receive in the indisputable com- 

 mand of the sovereign a constant point of union. 

 As this council has obtained an unhappy celebrity 

 n the history of the country, the loss of every 

 attle since the memorable thirty years' war having 

 >een attributed to its influence, we must explain 

 omewhat of its construction. The usual order is 

 hat the senior officer in the service fills the place 

 f president, and has a council of five generals, 

 with whom all purely military affairs are discussed 

 n secret. Under the control of this council the 

 ommanders of the forces stand in peace and in 

 war, and the difficulty of carrying on operations in 

 he field to the satisfaction of so many directors, is 

 aid to have been seriously felt in the French wars 

 ven by the Archduke Charles, whose rank and 

 alents were not sufficient to free him from these 

 fficial shackles. His total withdrawal from all 

 onnection with the war-office is generally looked 

 >n at Vienna as the effect of disgust. Under the 

 resident eleven councillors, partly military men 

 nd partly civilians, form a council of reference 

 nd debate for the dispatch of ordinary business, 

 nd divide between them the branches of the ord- 

 ance, the quartermaster-general's and the adjutant- 

 eneral's departments, the commissariat, the store- 



