cipal features of its first organization. It has 350 pupils between 18 and 20 years of age, who after a course of two years are sent, some to the école d'état-major, others to the cavalry school at Saumur, and the rest to the army as sub-lieutenants of infantry. There is also an important military school at La Flêche, founded by Louis XV. in 1764. Even before the seven years' war the French had an artillery school in every town where a regiment of that arm was garrisoned, and their example has been followed by Germany and Austria. In Prussia the education of officers is provided for by high schools for each arm in every army division, and by the royal military school at Berlin, founded by Frederick the Great, to which the most deserving young officers are admitted from the line. In Great Britain the royal military college at Sandhurst, which comprises a cadets' college and a staff college, and the royal military academy at Woolwich, designed as an artillery and engineer school, enjoy a high reputation. The United States military academy at West Point, founded in 1802, ranks second to no institution of the kind in the world. Cadets are admitted on the recommendation of members of congress and the president of the United States, and the act of congress of Feb. 2, 1872, increasing the congressional representation of the several states, enlarged the corps of cadets from 293 to 342, the present legal number. The education and subsistence are gratuitous, which is not the case at Sandhurst, Woolwich, St. Cyr, &c. The course of study, under a superintendent and 40 professors and instructors, 32 of whom are army officers, covers a period of four years. Since 1866 the standard of qualifications has been raised, and appointments to cadetships must now be made one year previous to admission. To the end of 1873 about 2,500 had graduated at West Point, and the total cost of the school since its establishment was less than $9,000,000. Apart from West Point, military instruction in the United States is provided for as follows: The act of July 28, 1866, authorized the president, “for the purpose of promoting knowledge of military science among the young men of the United States,” to detail officers of experience to act as professors in institutions of learning having upward of 150 male students; and several institutions have availed themselves of such instruction. By the same act provision is made for the instruction of enlisted men in the common English branches of education, and especially in the history of the United States, at every post, garrison, or permanent camp. In 1867 an artillery school was organized at Fortress Monroe, to which one battery from each of the five regiments of artillery is ordered every year, for theoretical and practical instruction in that branch of military tactics. In nearly every military department there are now schools of instruction in military signalling and telegraphy, and for this service there is special recruiting. The Virginia military institute, at Lexington, was organized in 1839; in 1873 it had 19 instructors and 260 students; it owns property valued at $300,000, and received an annual appropriation of $15,000 from the state, which appoints a certain number of the cadets. Its course of instruction is similar to that of West Point. The Kentucky military institute at Frankfort, was organized in 1846; in 1873 it had 6 instructors and 78 students; it owns property valued at $75,000, and is controlled by a board of visitors appointed by the governor of the state. Two or three American colleges, like the university at Norwich, Vt., are under a partial military organization, and in several of the private schools throughout the country the pupils wear a uniform and are drilled in the manual of arms.
MILITIA (Lat. miles, a soldier), a body of armed citizens trained to military duty, who may be called out in certain cases, but may not be kept on service, like standing armies, in time of peace. It differs from the levée en masse in having a regular organization at all times. Something equivalent to a militia seems to have existed in England in the time of the Saxons. The ceorles or peasants held their lands on condition of military service, every five hides of ground in most counties being charged with the equipment of one man, and were banded in bodies or companies, the command of which was given to the ealdormen elected by the people in the folkmotes. The peasants were enrolled under the banners of their immediate lords, but in case of rebellion or invasion the state had a paramount claim upon their services, and the lords had no further authority over them than the privilege of leading them in battle. The organization of this species of militia has been attributed to Alfred, but it seems certain that a national force called the fyrd, regulated probably by similar principles, existed before his time. Under the Normans the fyrd continued to be maintained simultaneously with the feudal armies, and ultimately it became the source both of the modern British militia and of the sheriff's posse comitatus. It was not till the reign of Edward III. that a statute was passed providing that no militiaman should be sent out of his own county except in case of invasion or other grave danger to the realm, nor out of the kingdom in any case. In the fifth year of Henry IV. a law was enacted empowering the king's “commissioners of array” to array and train all men-at-arms, to cause all able-bodied men to arm themselves according to their substance, to amerce those unable to bear arms, and to require the services of persons so armed at the seashore or elsewhere in season of danger. The command of the militia was often given to the persons charged with these commissions of array, but more frequently it rested with the sheriffs or high constables, each in his own county. Such was the organization of the militia when the parliament of Charles I. in 1642 passed a bill vesting the control of this
