now, constructing; it does not represent the cost of any one of the numerous first-class granite or brick forts which have been erected dur ing the last half century at our harbor mouths, and which armored ships and rifled ordnance have of late years rendered comparatively worthless; it does not equal the expenditures which have been bestowed on any one of the principal navy-yards of the country, from Portsmouth to Pensacola, one-half of which, probably, could be profitably dispensed with. Again, the annual cost of the maintenance of the United States Military Academy proper at West Point, as before shown, is at present about $250,000. This is about one-fourth of the cost of a regiment of infantry, and about equal to the cost of keeping an old ship of the line, or a present first-class armored naval vessel in commission. As a part of the military system of this country, which no patriotic and intelligent citizen would at present for a moment think of discarding, the annual cost of maintaining the national Military Academy is therefore, as before claimed, comparatively insignificant. To further assist to a correct judgment on this subject, attention is also here asked to the concurrent expenditures of Great Britain and of France on account of military education. Thus, the annual expenditures authorized by Parliament under the head of "military education" in Great Britain is at present about $900,000; five exclusively military educational institutions or colleges being maintained, in addition to two asylums for the education of soldiers' children, viz, the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, the Staff College at Sandhurst, the Department for the Instruction of Artillery Officers, and the National Military Medical School. France, before the Franco-Prussian war, maintained eight military colleges or schools, which were subdivided into fifteen. The total cost of these schools was about 3,000,000 francs (or $600,000) per annum, of which the Special Military School (or College), St. Cyr, absorbed 1,285,938 francs ($259,189) per annum, or about the same as the West Point Academy proper; the Polytechnic School, 664,300 francs; the School for Artillery and Engineers, 99,500 francs; the Cavalry School, 236,425 franes; and the School for Musketry, 36,270 francs. The Polytechnic School has 51 professors and teachers, the Special Military School 47 attached commissioned officers of different arms of the service, 19 other instructors and 72 "administrators," and the School for Cavalry 240 instructors, and from 30 to 40 farriers. About 1,500 pupils holding positions analogous to the United States Military Academy cadets are under constant national military education, besides graduates and officers of the line detailed for special educational courses. In Germany, the system of national military education is understood to be even more extensive and thorough than it is in either Great Britain or France. CONCLUSION. Reviewing the above recommendations, it will be seen, as before stated, that with the exception of raising the educational standard for admission to the Academy, and the revision of the subsequent four years' course of instruction, which would be contingent upon and made necessary by such change, there is, in the opinion of the Board, but little present demand or large opportunity for improving the existing condition of affairs at the national military school at West Point, save through the granting of some additional appropriations by Congress. The Board fully recognize, however, that the financial condition of the country and the present temper of the public alike demand the practice of the most rigid economy in respect to all national expenditures, and that therefore it would be inexpedient, if not useless, for them to ask for any material departure from such policy on the part of Congress in determining the next appropriation for the maintenance of the Academy. With the exception of the recommendation of the allowance of an extra clerk in aid of the fiscal offices of the post, which at the outside will not involve an increase of expenditure in excess of twelve hundred dollars, the Board have accordingly not recommended the increased appropriation of a single dollar for the Academy over and above the average amount usually granted, except with a view of promoting economy conjointly with efficiency. Thus, for example, there can be no profit in respect to either money, morals, or humanity, for the government to omit to provide West Point with a proper system of water-supply and sewerage, and thereby imperil the health and lives of the cadets and other occupants of the post. There can be no saving to the Treasury in refusing to anticipate the possible invasion of the Academy by infectious or contagious diseases by omitting to provide good and sufficient hospital accommodations in the event of such contingencies; especially when the bulk of all necessary expenditures has been already incurred. And, finally, it is financiering in opposition to all business experience and principles to expose two or more millions of public property to almost certain destruction by fire in order to save the expenditure of a few thousands in providing such a supply of water as in addition to its other benefits would render any extensive conflagration almost impossible. Economy that works in such a sphere is fitly characterized by the old and coarse proverbial expression, "saving at the spigot and wasting at the bung." The nation may temporarily be feeling poor, but it is not so poor that it cannot afford to do well what it finds necessary or expedient to do at all. A reform in the laws for the assessment and collection of the internal revenues on distilled spirits and tobacco, based on the combined experience of time and nations, and a prevention of the frauds and losses in the importation and entry of sugars, silks, gloves, and many other like articles of foreign production,* would in a single year give to the national Treasury funds, in addition to what it now receives, sufficient ot defray all the expenses of West Point, and possibly of the Naval Academy, for the remainder of this century; and this, too, without imposing a single additional burden of taxation upon the people. And if the impediments to national production and exchange which now result from the acceptance of bad fiscal theories and the maintenance of bad laws could be removed, the people of this country would be too prosperous and wealthy, and too busy in promoting their own comfort and material abundance, to criticise their chosen representatives, if in providing for the work the government finds it is necessary to do, the inclination is to the side of liberality rather than to close-fisted and calculating parsimony. Finally, in reviewing the reports of previous Boards of Visitors to the West Point Military Academy, this notable and curious circumstance reveals itself, namely, that every board previously acting and made up of selections of citizens from all sections of the country, from all parties and religious denominations, and representing a great variety of professions, *In a letter addressed to the chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means of the House of Representatives, under date of the 5th June, 1878, the Secretary of the Treasury states the belief to be well founded, "that under the present tariff the annual loss to the revenue upon importations of silks and gloves amounts to more than three millions of dollars." business, or occupations, has gone away from its work unanimously recommending the Academy to the confidence and support of the people of the country. And the present Board, while cordially reaffirming this judg ment of their predecessors, would further add, that they feel confident, if the people of the United States would but examine for themselves into the origin, development, and present working of the Academy, and the service of its graduates, and not allow themselves to be unduly influenced by those who speak without adequate information, or worse, by those whose mission it would seem to be to induce the people to believe lies,* then West Point, in place of being in any degree an object of popular prejudice and suspicion, would, on the contrary, be rather an object of pride to the whole nation, an institution of whose graduates it is no small compliment to say that they neither steal nor tell lies. † Signed in accordance with the vote of the board, October, 1878. To the Hon. SECRETARY OF WAR. President. SAML. B. FRANKLIN, Secretary. *The following paragraph, forming part of a long communication on the cost of the Army of the United States, which was conspicuously published in one of the influential and widely read newspapers of New York, while this report was in course of preparation, September 13, 1878, offers a striking illustration of the lack of correct popular information respecting the West Point Military Academy, or, more probably, of how efforts seem to be deliberately made, from time to time, to excite unreasonable prejudices in the popular mind against this institution: "If the staff of West Point were cut down to-morrow to six teachers, and the cadets in number to one from each State, chosen by public competition from the State schools, public and private, we would save three millions a year in salaries, and have a better Army than we have now." Now, when it is remembered that the entire annual cost, direct and indirect, of the West Point Academy proper, and for pay and subsistence of the military forces stationed at that post, is less than fifteen per cent. of the amount which it is here claimed could be saved to the nation by a reduction in the number of cadets and instructors, the absurdity of the above statement becomes at once apparent. And yet this statement was published as truth, suffered to pass uncontradicted, and was probably accepted by no small number of readers as a matter about which there could be no contradiction. Whatever be the political sentiments of Frenchmen-Republicans, Legitimists, or Imperialists-there is a common feeling of pride and favor for the French national military school of St. Cyr and for the polytechnic school of France, and to have graduated creditably from either of these national educational institutions is an honor that adheres to a citizen of France for the remainder of his life. APPPENDIX. A.-Schedule of questions used in the examination of applicants for admission to the United States Military Academy at West Point, June, 1878. EXAMINATION IN ENGLISH GRAMMAR. Time allotted, two hours. 1. What is English grammar? DIVISION I. 2. What is a verb? What are its properties? 3. Give the first person singular of all the tenses in the indicative mood of the verbs Drive, Smite. 4. State the difference between a transitive and an intransitive verb. ample of each. 5. What is a participle? Give an ex 6. Construct à sentence (or sentences) illustrating the use of the participle as a part of a verb, as an adjective, and as a verbal noun. 7. Name the interrogative pronouns, and give the rule for their use in reference to persons and things. 8. How must pronouns agree with the nouns for which they stand? DIVISION II. Directions.-In parsing, rules are not to be given. Each word must be fully parsed, so as to show what it is, and its relation to other words in the sentence. Parse the following sentence: Young men entering military life should be actuated by the highest motives that govern humanity, and learn to fear dishonor more than death. DIVISION III. Correct all the errors in the following sentences: 1. Who should I trust if not he who I have lived with? 2. Everybody ought to follow the dictates of their own conscience. 3. By no means be not seen. 4. Each have their own faults. 5. He done it, for I seen him do it. 6. He writes like I do. 7. No one does it more easily than her. 8. Neither he or I were in fault. 9. Between you and I he acted very unwisely. 10. Was it you or him that did it? It was me. 11. Each of the States are represented. 12. I was not there nor my sister neither. 13. I ought to have told him to have gone and got it. 14. Henry is older, but not so tall as James. 15. England expects every man to do their duty. 16. Every one of your arguments are absurd. 17. A too great variety of studies weaken the mind. 18. Every man should act suitable to his station in life. 19. Henry learned me to skate. 20. He did not act with that loyalty as was expected. 21. I was once thinking to have written a poem. 22. Lake Superior is the largest of any lake in the world. 23. Which of your four brothers is the younger? 24. The general with all the soldiers were taken. N. B.-The candidate will name the text-books on this subject which he has studied. EXAMINATION IN GEOGRAPHY. Time allotted, two hours. 1. What river of the United States flows into the Gulf of California? In what direction does it flow? |