The disasters of the Russian campaign occasioned new expedients for raising men besides the regular conscription. Half a million of men was voted by the senate towards the end of 1812, consisting of 150,000 conscripts of 1813, 150,000 of 1814, 100,000 out of the lists of 1809, 1810, 1811, and 1812, who had not been included in the former levies, and 100,000 men of the first ban of the National Guard, who were formed into regiments of the line.
In November, 1813, another Senatus Consultum placed at the disposal of the emperor 350,000 more conscripts of the lists of 1813-14, who had not been in cluded in the previous levies ; and by a decree, 17th December of the same year, 180,000 men, taken chiefly from the Na tional Guards, were ordered for the de fence of the towns, as the allies threatened the French territory ; and yet, notwith standing these enormous calls, Napoleon, in 1814, had hardly 150,000 regular troops to oppose to the allies.
Besides the above conscriptions of the French empire, the kingdom of Italy fur nished the following numbers:—in 1805, 6000; January, 1807, 9000; October, 1807, 10,000; 1808, 12,000; 1810, 11,000; January, 1811, 15,000; Novem ber, 1811, 15,000; 1812, 15,000; Feb ruary, 1813, 15,000; October, 1813, 15,000.
Few soldiers, unless disabled by infir mities or wounds, ever got their discharge under Napoleon. The time of service was unlimited. By art. 11 of the Charte of 1830, the conscription was abolished, and a new law was promised respecting the recruitment of the army and navy.
This law was promulgated 21st March, 1832, and it declares that the army is to be recruited only by voluntary engage ments and by the appel,' which term signifies a choice by the drawing of lots amongst the young men of each canton who have completed their twentieth year during the year preceding. The follow ing persons are exempt from the appel any orphan with younger brothers or sisters—an only son or grandson, and the oldest son or grandson of a widow or blind father, or of a father above sixty— but if the eldest son or grandson in either of the last-mentioned cases is blind or infirm, the youngest is exempted. There
are also some other exemptions, as per sons engaged in public instruction, or who are preparing for the church or the ministry in any religious denomination which is paid by the State, also students who have obtained certain prizes. There is an appeal to a council of revision for those who conceive that they ought to have been exempted. The period of service is seven years. Persons who have drawn lots which render them habit to serve may obtain a substitute, who must be above twenty and not above thirty years of age, or thirty-five if he has already served in the army, or between eighteen and thirty if the brother of a person liable. Substitutes must not be married, or with children. A person under the age of thirty cannot be admitted to any civil or military office unless he has fulfilled the obligations of the law of 21st March, 1832. Napoleon admitted in prin ciple the procuring of substitutes, and even defended it in the Council of State, as necessary " in the present state of society, which was very different from that of Sparta or Rome ;" but he afterwards sur rounded it with so many difficulties, that substitutes became extremely scarce and expensive.
In Prussia all men able to bear arms from twenty to twenty-five belong to the standing army : they serve three years, and are then discharged for two years, during which they are liable to be called out as the reserve. All those who have served in the standing army belong to the landwehr of the first ban, from the age of twenty-six to thirty-two inclusive. This ban, in time of war, is liable to serve abroad as well as at home. It is called out every year to exercise. The second ban is called out only in time of war, and includes all men capable of bearing arms till the age of thirty-nine. All older men fit for service belong to the landsturm. For an account of the Prussian military system see Laing's Notes of a Traveller.'