France.— The following establishments are included in the general system of education of officers of the French navy: The Polytechnic School, Medical Schools, Torpedo School, Ma chinists' School, Gunnery School and Artillery School. The Polytechnic School, founded in 1799, is the preparatory school for the scientific branches of thepublic service and is under the control of the Minister of War. Its organiza tion is military, with a general officer of the army at its head. The pupils of this school are carefully selected at the start and the ex amination for admission ensures a high stand ard of preliminary attainment. The success of this school is so remarkable its influence on the public service of France has become a matter of history and it has taken a place among the very first of schools of its class in the world. In the Naval School of Brest, the methods of instruction adopted are similar, in a general way, to those of other French schools and col leges and resemble nothing in America. Reci tation in the ordinary sense does not exist and textbooks are almost unknown. A few books of reference are used, including the nautical almanac and the admirable series of manuals published under the authority of the Ministry of Marine. The main feature of the system of instruction is the tours, or lecture. The Engi neer? School (constructors) at Cherbourg is simple in its organization. It is under the gen eral supervision of the Prefet Maritime and is inspected from time to time by the inspector general of the corps of engineers. At its head is a constructing engineer as director. As the profession of naval construction is a favorite branch among the higher graduates of the Polytechnic, coining usually after mines and roads and bridges, the pupils are selected men and distinguished in a higher degree by earnest ness, intelligence and thorough scientific attain ments. They enter the school of application at the age of 20 or 21. The Torpedo School at Boyardville has two objects, the training of officers and men for the torpedo service and the performance of experiments for the de velopment and perfection of the materials of this branch of maritime warfare. The two functions are largely performed by the same officers. The School of Machinists at Toulon was established by the decree of 13 Feb. 1879, and took the place of the two schools that formerly existed for a similar purpose at Brest and Toulon. The pupils at the school consist of firemen artificers, candidates for promotion to quartermaster machinists; of quartermasters and machinist pupils, candidates for second masters, and of second masters, candidates for first masters. Admission to the school is ob tained after passing a double examination.
The Naval Academy and Naval School at Kiel form really two establishments united under one government. The academy is
devoted to the higher education of officers who have shown marked ability and who come as voluntary students. The school, on the other hand, is attended by midshipmen or acting sub lieutenants and by cadets, and its courses are compulsory for all officers. At the academy and school the direction of all matters relating to instruction rests with the committee on studies, consisting of five members, who have extraordinary powers in regard to examina tions. The regulations governing attendance at lectures and exercises are exceedingly precise and strict. There is also at Kiel the School of Engineers and Pilotage.
The Royal Naval School of Italy is composed of two divisions, the first at Naples and the second at Genoa, the Naval School be ing considered as preparatory to that of Genoa. The general system of education is similar to that of France, there being a gunnery school (established by royal decree in 1873), a torpedo school (established in 1874) and a school for engineer mechanicians (establishd in 1862 at Genoa). The restraints imposed in general by discipline at Italian naval schools are numer ous and severe. The students have no standing as officers and are simply designated as pupils. The scale of punishments ranges from the ex treme of pettiness to the extreme of severity.
The true goal of the training at the Naval War College and naval schools is efficient co ordination of effort or unity of action. This unity can be realized only through co-ordinate thinking of all persons in a naval service. The navy is a collection of individual minds, and if these minds are untrained the resultant is intellectual chaos. The intellectual acts of a naval officer in command of a force should fol low after methodical thought in the following order: A clear grasp of the intention of in structions; a careful examination of all con ditions bearing on the situation; a determina tion of intention; the communication of this intention to subordinates. The best training, as now admitted by all nations, large and small, having navies, is in war. If it were not for the stimulus of necessity, all effort in the world would come to an end. The Naval War Col lege created an artificial war, at first called the war game and later known as chart nianmuvre. This last term is a happy one, for it accentuates the fact that the strategist's real field of oper ations is the chart and is in keeping with Jomini's definition of strategy—'War on the map.* A further consideration will show that ordinary navigation is merely *sailing on the chart.* The war game or map manoeuvre was a notable factor in the wonderful successes achieved by German arms against Austria in 1866 and France in 1870. The map manmuvre is truly the subcalibre method of training naval strategists. See NAVAL INTELLIGENCE.