administration and the superior council-corresponding to the two divis ions of the staff of the establishment. Each of these is presided over by the commandant of the school. The council of administration is composed of the commandant, the senior inspecting officer, the chaplain, the senior executive adjutant, and the paymaster. It is charged with all questions of administration and prepares the estimates; it audits accounts, and is responsible for all receipts and disbursements. The accounting officer, though a member of the council, has only a consult ing voice; he also performs the duty of secretary.

The council reserves 200 lire a year from the fees of each student, which are credited to him on the books, and expended for the repair and replenishment of his wardrobe. All this is done without the intervention of the student concerned. The cast-off clothing and effects of students are sold and the proceeds turned into the treasury of the school, to be disposed of as the council sees fit. Any balance of the fees reserved remaining to the credit of a student is paid over to him at the close of his course.

The superior council is composed of the commandant, the director of studies, the senior professor, the professor of history or of literature, and one other professor, the last being selected by the commandant. The superior council is authorized to direct and carry out the instruction in conformity with the general outline prescribed by the Ministry; to select text-books; to name the members of the staff of professors; to conduct the annual examinations; to report upon the result of the examinations; to award prizes, and to make an annual report in detail upon the progress of the school. It has also authority to make recommendations to the ministry in regard to the following subjects: 'Changes in the course, charges for instruction, cases of negligence or misconduct, discharge of undeserving students. The council has meetings regularly once a quarter, and at other times as the commandant may direct or the members desire. The essential feature of the system is the entire separation of the details of instruction, (i. e., theoretical instruction), and adminis tration, except, of course, as they are united in the person of the commandant. With this exception, none of the officers in the administrative branch have anything to do with instruction, nor have the instructors any part in the military administration.

The commandant of the school is responsible to the Commander-inChief of the department, and holds to that officer much the same relation that the captain of the Borda holds to the Préfet Maritime at Brest. He makes a formal inspection of the school every week, and reports the result of his observations in person or in writing to the Commander-in-Chief. Applications for officers to be ordered to duty at the school are made. by name by the commandant to the Commander-in-Chief, who forwards them to the Ministry with his indorsement. Lieutenants are thus ordered as inspecting officers, and junior officers as executive officers (aiutante), for the daily routine of the school.

The two inspecting officers remain at the school one year, and may be renominated if applied for; their duty is to superintend the inner working of the school, but more particularly to watch over the discipline and conduct of the cadets and to supervise their practical and military instruction; they are on duty during alternate weeks. During his tour of duty, the inspecting officer receives every morning the reports of the professors and of the janitor, and makes a résumé of whatever has hap pened, which he presents to the commandant; he is present at prayers, at the inspection of rooms, at meals, and at all exercises, including swimming; and he may inflict punishments, subject to the approval of the commandant.

Subject to the authority of the superior council, of which he is a mem ber, the director of studies has oversight of everything relating to the theoretical instruction of the cadets and carries out the regulations of the superior council; and the orders of the commandant are transmitted by him to the professors.

A few days before the opening of the school he receives from the professors a programme of the studies intrusted to each one, with modifications suggested by the previous year's course of study, and with a proposed list of text-books. These propositions are discussed separately and collectively in the superior council, to which the director of studies makes a report on the programme. He is also charged with the execution of the details of the course of instruction, the supervision of the methods pursued by instructors, and the progress made by the cadets. He receives from the instructors monthly reports, which form in part the basis of the monthly reports on the school; and he prepares the materials for the annual report, transmitted by the superior council, on the condition and working of the school.

The professors and tutors are answerable to the commandant, but receive orders relative to discipline from the inspecting officers and those relating to instruction from the director of studies.

Monthly marks are given by the professors for the work done by the students as shown in recitations and exercises; these marks, like all others, are on a scale of 10. Monthly reports are sent to the inspectng officer, containing the marks, together with statements of conduct in recitation-rooms), diligence, and progress of the students. A general merit-roll is made up from the marks given, multiplied by the prescribed coefficients, and this roll is published each month at the school. A special report of the conduct, progress, and diligence of each student 3 sent to his parents.

The following list shows the arrangement of the studies in the course of theoretical instruction, with the coefficient of each branch:

During all the school sessions practical instruction is given every week in the following branches, alternate days being taken:

Rigging ship, exercise with sails and spars................

Ship-building in the dockyard

Great guns...

Small-arms..

Fencing, gymnastics, swimming.

All but the last are subjects of the annual examination. First year students have also exercises in penmanship. In addition to the above exercises, which take place on week days, students have regularly on Sundays lessons in fencing and dancing, and occasional exercises in great guns, small-arms, and gymnastics.

In the two upper classes a weekly lecture of a familiar character is given by the professor of history on subjects connected with social and political matters, and the relations of officers to society and to the State. These lectures are largely attended by the officers of the station.

Each school is provided with a library, physical and chemical laboratories, an observatory, and a collection of astronomical and geodetical instruments. The library is used by students as well as officers, and is under the direction of a professor. The professional apparatus appertaining directly to the schools is not so extensive as the necessities of the case would seem to warrant, though the immediate neighborhood of the dockyards supplies these deficiencies to a limited extent. A mast and bowsprit, fully rigged and sparred, are set up in one of the court-yards, and are used for exercises in seamanship.

The course outlined above requires some further observations. As usual, a large part of the time at disposal is given to mathematics. The examination for admission is of a sufficiently high character to do away with the necessity of much elementary work. Accordingly, the first year's course in algebra is extensive, going thoroughly into the theory of equations. The students in this year also go through plane and spherical trigonometry and a simple course in plane sailing. The analytical geometry, plane and solid, is a reasonably high course, while that in descriptive geometry is comparatively simple. In the second year, mathematical instruction is confined to the differential and integral calculus. The course is extensive, going largely into differential equations, but it is too exclusively theoretical, and contains much that is of little practical value. Judged by the standards of instruction of the present day, it would be considered somewhat antiquated. The third year contains a full course in analytical mechanics, including statics, dynamics, and kinematics. This year also includes the whole of navigation and antical astronomy, and a complete course in hydrography and topography. The course in applied mathematics of the fourth year consists of an exhaustive treatment of what is generally called naval architecture. The course in physics and chemistry of the second year calls for no special comment; the former includes heat, light, sound, electricity, and magnetism; the latter is a simple course of a descriptive character in inorganic chemistry.

The important professional subjects are chiefly reserved for the fourth rear; these include, in addition to the mathematical treatment of naval architecture, already referred to, the subjects of ship-building; naval tactics under sail and steam; fortification and the military art, including Sell and permanent fortification, organization of the Italian and foreign armies, and military tactics; gunnery, including guns of all modern systems, projectiles, carriages, powder, fabrication of guns and ammunition, and torpedoes.

Under the name of Italian literature several subjects are included. The course for the first year consists of rhetoric and exercises in various

kinds of composition. In the second year the rhetoric and composition are continued with the addition of a course in general literary criticism, treating of different branches of literature, and including history, travels, fiction, and poetry. The third year's course takes up in detail the leading Italian authors from the early development of the language to the present century-from Cavalcanti to Manzoni and d'Azeglio-and includes a special study of Dante. In the fourth year the subject proper of Italian literature is dropped, and international law takes its place. This last subject is treated in its most modern aspect, in the light of the most recent cases. In this last year there is also some practice in writ ing compositions on literary subjects.

Instruction in French is given during the first three years, in English during the last three; in both, instruction is thorough as far as it goes, though not so successful as in Germany. It includes grammar, writing letters and exercises, conversation, and translating from and into Italian. In English one of the text-books is Irving's Life of Columbus.

The course in history which has a place in the two final years is very thorough. It begins with medieval history, extending to the crusades. In the last year the whole of European history, especially Italian, is gone over from the thirteenth century down to the present time. The later courses in geography consist largely of historical study, and form the complement of the historical course. Under the name of political geography the course includes the study of comparative politics, and the territorial and diplomatic relations of states. The first year's course in geography is merely descriptive.

The theoretical course of instruction receives its practical application in the annual practice-cruises. These cruises are five in number, the first four of three and a half months each, and the last of six months, making in all nearly two years of training on shipboad. The training is not confined to practical exercises, though the latter occupy the important place. Regular instruction is given in navigation, gunnery, and seamanship during all the cruises; in naval tactics during the last three; in ship-building during the last two; and in official regulations and steamengineering in the complementary course. All this represents an essential and very important part of the instruction given in the Italian scheme of education. Its most marked defect is the postponement of all instruction in steam-engineering to the close of the course, and the inadequate provision of time for carrying it on by relegating it to a part of the final practice-cruise.

Examinations are held every year at the end of the academic session. The board of examiners at Naples consists of professors designated by the superior council. At Genoa, the board is a mixed commission, composed of the following persons:

The commandant as president.

One superior officer, junior to the commandant, and one lieutenant; both designated by the commandant.