534 III. MERCANTILE MARINE. The Mercantile Marine of the United Kingdom in number of vessels, their registered tonnage, and men employed, together with the value of property and number of passengers transported in them, exceeds that of any other country. The total number of vessels in the home and foreign trade, registered in 1869, was 21,881, with a tonnage of 5,575,303, employing 202,477 men, and freighted with imports and exports to the total value of 532,475,2667. All matters relating to merchant ships and seamen, and the mercantile marine generally, are committed to the general superintendence of the Board of Trade, which, as constituted in 1786, is composed of certain high officers, (members of the Privy Council), and its President is a Cabinet officer. To this Board all consular officers, all officers of customs abroad, and all local marine boards and shipping masters must make reports in matter and form as required. Inspectors, duly appointed by this Board, may visit any ship, examine any registry, machinery, boats, equipments, &c., to ascertain if they are conformable to law. In every seaport a Shipping Master is appointed by the Local Marine Board, who must keep register of names and character of seamen, facilitate their engagement and discharge, as well as the apprenticeship of boys to sea-service. The Local Board must provide for the examination of persons who intend to become masters or mates according to rules laid down by the Board of Trade. And to such as pass a satisfactory examination as to sobriety, experience, ability, and general good conduct on board ship, shall be given a certificate of competency; and to those who have served as masters or mates, under certain conditions, a certificate of service with specifications must be given. Shipping Masters must assist, when applied to by parents or guardians, or masters of ships, in apprenticing boys to the sea-service. No person can be employed as master or mate, who does not hold a certificate of competency, and under certain conditions, of service. Opportunities of preparing for these examinations are now provided in all the large seaports, in Navigation Schools; and the Government, through the Department of Science and Arts, encourages the study of astronomy, navigation, steam and steam machinery, and other branches, which are serviceable to officers in command of vessels, whether propelled by sails or engines, by making appropriations of money to schools according to the number of pupils who pass satisfactory examinations in these studies. COUNCIL OF MILITARY EDUCATION. HISTORICAL NOTICE. IN the debates which took place in Parliament during the Crimean war, in the year 1855, attention was frequently drawn to the necessity of improving the professional education of officers, and more particularly of providing means of instruction for, and requiring special qualifications from, those who were candidates for the staff. In the course of the same year a great alteration was made in the principles which had hitherto regulated preparatory instruction for the army, by abandoning, so far as the scientific corps were concerned, the system of juvenile military education, and throwing admission to the Artillery and Engineers open to public competition among candidates whose age would afford the presumption that their general education was already completed. At the beginning of 1856 three Commissioners, Lieut.-Colonel Yolland, R.E., Lieut.-Colonel Smythe, R.A., and the Rev. W. C. Lake, were appointed by Lord Panmure, then Secretary of State for War, "to consider the best mode of reorganizing the system for training officers for the scientific corps"; and for this purpose were directed to visit the military schools of France, Prussia, Austria, and Sardinia. The instructions issued to the Commissioners informed them that it was already decided that admission to the scientific corps should be obtained by open competition, and that the age of candidates admitted to the examination should be from 17 to 20. While the Commissioners were still engaged in their inquiries, the question of military education was frequently brought before the notice of Parliament in the course of the session of 1856, more particularly by Mr. Sidney Herbert, who, in an elaborate speech on the 5th of June, explained to the House of Commons the details of a general scheme of education for officers of all branches of the service, the outline of which he had previously sketched out while Secretary at War in 1854, in a letter to the Commander-in-Chief. The subject of military education was one which at this time engaged the serious attention both of the Government and the public. Toward the close of the year, Major-General Lefroy (then Colonel Lefroy, and employed at the War Office as artillery adviser to the Secretary of State) was directed by Lord Panmure to draw up a general scheme for the education of officers; and numerous plans, with a similar object, were about the same period proposed for the consideration of the Secretary of State. The military educational establishments which existed in 1856 were as follows: The Royal Military College at Sand- Under the control of the Comhurst, comprising a senior and junior department. The Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. The Ordnance School at Carshalton, a The Department of Artillery Studies at The Royal Engineer Establishment at mander-in-Chief. Under the control of the Clerk of the Ordnance. The East India Military College at Addis- § Under the Court of Directors combe. The School of Musketry at Hythe. The Royal Military Asylum at Chelsea, comprising a training school for army schoolmasters, and a model school for children. The Royal Hibernian School at Dublin. Garrison and regimental schools for soldiers and children. of the East India Company. Under the control of the Commander-in-Chief. Under the control of the Deputy Secretary at War. Under the control of the Chaplain-General. Up to this period no systematic organization for the direction of military education had prevailed in this country; the various educational establishments were under the control of separate departments, and no single authority exercised any general supervision over them. The appointment of a DirectorGeneral of Military Education had been already advocated in Parliament by Mr. Sidney Herbert, and the institution of a special department to superintend the whole system of education for the army was one of the main features both of Colonel Lefroy's and of all the other schemes brought under the consideration of Lord Panmure at this period. The Commissioners appointed in 1856, after having visited the military schools of the Continent, presented their Report in January, 1857. In this Report, although their instructions. had more particularly directed their attention to the training of officers for the scientific corps, they touched upon several points connected with the education of officers of the army generally. One of the changes most strongly recommended by them was the formation of a special Board of Military Education. "We consider it of the first importance," their Report says, "that military education in this country should be regarded as a whole, and that perfect unity of system and harmony in its working should be made to prevail. This, we conceive, can only be done by bringing military education generally under the control of one head, the Secretary of State for War; and to effect this, a Board or Section of Military Education should be formed, as part of the establishment of the War Office." The Report adds: "The creation of such a Section appears to us far more important than any other single object we can recommend." The Commissioners also stated that after careful consideration, they recommended the combined action of a Board in preference to the undivided authority of a single individual, on the ground of the variety of knowledge and experience required for the proper treatment of educational questions. The appointment of the Council of Military Education was the first result of the recommendations of the Commissioners. Its institution was proposed in a letter from the Commanderin-Chief to the Secretary of State for War on the 6th of April, 1857, and as originally constituted, it consisted of the Commander-in-Chief as ex officio president, a Major-General as vice-president, and two field officers as members. The appointment of the Council, although the members commenced their duties at once, was not officially gazetted until June. The functions of the Council, however, did not in the first instance extend to a general superintendence over the whole system of military education. Almost simultaneously with their institution an Inspector-General of Army Schools was appointed under the Secretary of State for War, to whom the management of all institutions connected with the education of soldiers and children, which had previously been in the hands of the Chaplain-General, was entrusted. Nor was the supervision of the Council even over the education of officers at first general, as the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich remained under the management of the War Office (under which department it had been placed on the abolition of the office of Master-General of the Ordnance), and the examina tions for admission to it were conducted by a separate Board of Examiners, under the superintendence of Canon Moseley. The instructions issued to the Council on their first appointment directed their attention more especially to the organization of a Staff College, the revision of the system of examinations for direct appointments to the army, the amalgamation of Woolwich and Sandhurst, and the professional instruction and examination of officers after entering the service. On all these questions they submitted reports in the course of the year, and at the beginning of 1858 they commenced to conduct the examinations in connection with the Staff College and the Cadet College at Sandhurst, although these establishments were not formally put under their authority until, by a Royal Warrant of the 1st of October, 1858, the Council were appointed Visitors of the Royal Military College. The examinations of officers for direct appointments to the staff, which had been instituted in 1857, were also placed under the superintendence of the Council in 1858; but at a later period, the portion of these examinations which has more especial reference to matters of drill and regimental duty was, on the recommendation of the Council themselves, removed from their control, with the view of its being conducted by a Board of Officers appointed by the Adjutant-General. At the beginning of the year 1858, the office of Secretary to the Council of Military Education was created, and in June of the same year an augmentation of their number took place by the addition of two new members,-one a field officer, the other a civilian, the Rev. Canon Moseley. The constitution of the Council as then fixed continues to the present day, and consists of the Commander-in-Chief as ex officio president, a vice-president, and four members, one being a civilian. The appointment of a civilian as a member of the central Board of Military Education had been recommended by the Commissioners of 1856, on the ground of the close connection between military and civil educational questions. The decision to carry out this recommendation, simultaneously with an augmentation in the strength of the Council, appears to have been connected with the determination arrived at, to place the superintendence of the Academy at Woolwich-the competitive examinations for admission to which had hitherto been conducted by Canon Moseley-in the hands of the Council |