Conscription In France

Fron an interesting articlo in the Temple Bar Magazine, we copy the following : "In Frunce whon a lad arrivés at the age of twonty-oue, hü is liablo to be drafted in ihe aruiy. To the poor, fate is inexorable ; to the wealthy she affords a loop-hole, a chance of escape, in the sliape of a substitute. Within four and twenty hours of ita birth, every infaut is canied by the nurse aud its father, or some other relation, to the maire, and there its name and sex are duly entered into a vast volume in the Registry Office. If it be a boy, it is followed by th6 pólice all over the country. Jeannotte's parents cannot move f rom one place to another without giving notice to the commissaire of hts migration ; and when, after years of this civic per secution, he entera the threshhold of manhood, the lucklesa lad finds himself invited by the minister of war to pre sent himself at the military bureau. " Too well he knows the meaning of that oininous invitation, and with beating heart and heavy step oboys the sumrnons. He knew that it niiust come ; Jeannotte knew that it must come; yet none the less sorrowful he goes, aud they accompany him to the bureau, and none the less teariully they behold him descending the steps with the gay col oís pinned to his cap in mockery of hia misíortune. For a misfortuue it is rogarded. " Few, very few Frenchmen, however valiantly tbey figbton ihe field, however loudly they afterwards talk of theglory of arras, rejoice when they first draw the evil scrip which tears them from their homes, from their daily business, from their future careor, to run a willo the-wisp chaso utter the problemática! marshal's baton which every Frenuh soldier is told he carrios in liis knapsaok. If anything could reconcile him to this lot, or solten the horrors of this fareüilo abstraction from his family, it would be the idea of promotion - of eomparaiively easy promotion, which charaotorizes the Frency army ; but evon this fails to cheer, or to eompunsata t?5m for the serious cheok which ha prospeuts in life reoeive. A cloud has desoündod thiok and dark upmi his hopes, upon the delicute Hule projüüta of love und matrimoiiy be had fornied ; and at twentyone he is cotnpolled to rusign himself to a baneu, if not a vicious courso ol' lifo he detests, abandoning designs he bad probably cherished from his youth. Sucli is the sooial phase of the couacription. Yet 100,000 youths are tfi'üs aunually torn from their homes; by an imperial decree of 1857, the number was fis;ed at this high figure. Proviously it was left to the discretion or caprice Öf the war minister, who raisod it. Subutitution, however, is allowed io the Freuch army, tTp to tho year 1855, private agencie existed, where substitutes ooujd be procured lor a stipulated sum pídcu then, however, theso agencies havo been abolished, and the govornment has entirely monopolized tho business, with the view of creating a dotatio'n fmul, whercwi;!) to enconrage reiulistinont when tin; origina) term of service has expired. ■ Tho price of a tttbttit'Jte it fiscd ancuallvj anü varios t'onsiderably ; yet t is at any timo a largo auïn íor a youth, even of thé raiddie chisses, to pav. In 1855, the sum waaL112 1856, L72; and in 1862, L92. To show how poorly voluntary enlistment succeeda íd France, and also hoyr the true campaigning spirit ia deolining, wo niüy record the f;ict, that, whereas in 1853, 8,000 presentod themselves to tho reouiting soigoant, Dot more thaa 2,192 displayod Ilieir martial zeal in 1802; so little pugnacious is your real Fronchman if left to hunself. No army in the world offera gruater prizes ; and it would not be fair to the military system of Franco not to state that rapid advancometit "is opeu to every soldier, and that no man with superior education ever remains long in the ranks. iïL! Gen. Fis4nk GiiANQEit, of New York Sute, ex Po.stm-u.ter General, umi a life-long oppoiT'iit ot' the domooriits, i luis corneoutfor McOlellan. He hus uevcr bufore actcd with the demoorals.