On the second restoration of the Bourbons in 1815, the army had fallen into a very disorganized state, the disciplined soldiers being dispersed, and the ranks slowly filled by new levies. In the end of 1817, the public saw, with surprise, the Bourbon government propose a recurrence to the conscrip tion as the only effectual method of filling the ranks with men of steady habits ; for the army in France, never a receptacle for the refuse of the populace, has, in general, been composed of young peasantry and labourers of good character. Such was its con stitution in the war of the Revolution, and its dis cipline was exemplary, until Bonaparte adopted the unfeeling practice of making war without maga zines, and obliged the soldiers to live at free quar ters on the inhabitants. The new conscription is indeed greatly modified, the numbers annually re quired being limited to 40,000, and the term of service to six years; still the measure is compulsory, and falls heavy on the middle and lower classes ; the alternative for a youth, when drawn, being either to give up his intended profession or to pay L. 40 or L.50 for a substitute. In 1819, the French army amounted to 100,000 men ; it was soon after con siderably increased, and will ere long be carried to 150,000, a number likely to form the permanent peace establishment. This force is compospd of The guards, a numerous corps, consisting of six teen regiments; viz. eight of infantry, eight of ca valry ; each of the former of three battalions; each of the latter of six squadrons.
The cavalry of the line comprises, under the va rious denominations of chasseurs, dragoons, cuiras siers, and hussars, in all forty-eight regiments, but in peace they are on a reduced scale.
The infantry of the line, classed during the Re volution by brigades, and under Bonaparte by re giments, is now (since February 1819) classed by legions, of which there is one for each department, making in all eighty-six, each generally of three bat talions: the total number of battalions is two hun. dred and fifty-eight.
The artillery is composed of eight regiments serving on foot, and of eight regiments of horse-ar tillery. The engineers are a numerous and well educated body of officers; the corps of Ingenieurs Geographes comprises five colonels.
The Swiss troops in the French service amount to 10,000, of whom above 4000 are in the guards.
The gradations of rank in French service are, sous-lieutenant, lieutenant, capitaine, chef d'escadron, colonel, marechal-de-crimp, lieutenant general, mare. chat de France. The number of the marshals of France will henceforth be limited to twelve ; the number of the other ranks, even that of lieutenant general, is very large, for the slat major, or staff of the army, after a reduction in 1818, consists of 130 lieutenants-generaus, and 260 marichaux de camp. There are on full pay twice as many officers as are necessary for the duty, but the number of half-pay officers exceeds all proportion ; for this part of Bo naparte's vast machine has remained, while most of the private soldiers have sunk tranquilly into the oc cupations of the lower classes.
Promotion in the French army never takes place by purchase, and not often by special order; senio rity at present determines more than half the ap pointments, a course which, while it renders pro motion extremely slow, will eventually give employ ment to almost all the half-pay officers. Of the soldiers in service, there is still a part of the army of Bonaparte, but the majority are recent levies.
Of the military seminaries of France, the one of highest repute is the Ecole Polytechnique,—a school for the instruction of young men in mathematics, and drawing for the engineer and artillery corps; none but candidates of talent are admitted, and it is well entitled to the name of a nursery (pepiaiJre) of intelligent officers.
The charge to o.overnraent of a foot soldier in France does not, in time of peace, exceed L.20 a year; that of the cavalry soldier is nearly double. The pay for either officer or soldier is little more than half the rate in England, and its in adequacy is much complained of. The whole charge of the war department under Bonaparte was about L.20,000,000 Sterling ; at present it is about L.6,000,000.
The gendarmerie are not a part of the regular army, but a corps charged with the police duty, and scattered in small divisions throughout all France; their total number, including officers, is 1P,000. . The garde. nationales correspond to our yeomanry and volunteers; every town of consequence has a corps of this description.
The chief fortifications of France, on the side of Flanders, are the well-known towns of Lille, Valen ciennes, Conde, Douay ; on the side of the Alps, Em brum, Grenoble, Antibes; on the side of the Pyrenees, Perpignan, Bellegarde, Mont-Louis, Bayonne. The fortified seaports are Brest, Toulon, Cherburg, Roche fort, Boulogne. France is, without question, the first military power on the Continent, being nearly equal to Russia in population, and greatly superior in pe cuniary resources, as well as in the intelligence of the individuals that compose her army.
The superiority of the English navy over the French existed in ages when our pecuniary means were far inferior ; and though, during the middle of the reign of Louis XIV. the French, by financial sacrifices, obtained a numerical superiority, one great battle, that of La Hogue in 1692, was suffi cient to restore our ascendancy. The war of 1741, however successful on the part of France by land, was, particularly towards its close, unfortunate to her at sea. In the succeeding interval of peace, great efforts were made to reinstate the French navy, but the war of 1756 proved doubly disastrous, and at last swept it almost entirely from the ocean. A very different scene opened in the war of 1778, when France, unembarrassed by a continental struggle, was enabled to direct all her disposable resources to her marine. She was then enabled to keep in an effective state about seventy sail of the line, the crews of which, added to those of the frigates and corvettes, formed a total of 60,000 seamen. The blows given to this force by our navy, towards the end of the war, were repaired with great diligence in the peace ; and to prepare young officers for the sea in preference to the land service, became a fa vourite object in several of the government schools. In 1791, an official report stated the effective French navy at seventy-four sail the line, sixty-two fri gates, and twenty-nine corvettes ; a state of prepara tion which accounts for the resistance made to our navy by the Revolutionary government under all the disadvantages of an unparalleled continental strug gle. This proud force, however, disappeard pro gressively at the capture of Toulon, the victory of 1st June 1794, and still more in the victory of Abou kir, so that Bonaparte, on his accession to power, found the French marine in a very reduced state. He laboured, however, to reinstate it ; the years of continental peace, 1801, 1802, 1803, 1804, were favourable to his efforts, and, in 1805, he boasted of having in equipment sixty sail of the line, a force destined to an early diminution at Trafalgar and St Domingo. The Bourbons, on recovering their crown, found little more than half the force that existed previous to the Revolution. It has since re ceived a small augmentation, and amounts at pre sent. (1820) to forty-eight sail of the line and twenty nine frigates, with eleven of the former and four of the latter on the stocks; but there are in active ser vice only five frigates, three corvettes, and from eighteen to twenty schooners and cutters. The an nual vote for the navy is only L.1,800,000, not one third of the same head of charge in England. •