242               DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE. 
Results of the levy for the years 1859 to 1861-Continued. 
 
Description. 
Those inscribed in the preceding levies called to form part of the 
contingent of the year. 
Substitutes.--------------------------------------------- 
Those who have exchanged their numbers in the rolls-............ 
Others liable  to  serve ........................................... 
When missing from the contingent-............................ 
Seat back to hospital, &c ....................................... 
 
1859. 
71 
10 
1,098 
32 
10,7000 
 
1860. 
30 
58 
647 
73 
10, 000 
 
1861. 
10 
72 
699 
99 
10, 000 
 
Average. 
37 
103 
815 
68 
10,7000 
 
SYSTEM OF RECRUITING IN FRANCE. 
The organization of the French army is based upon three distinct provisions

of law: 
1st. The law passed Mfarch 21, 1832, establishing the principle that every

Frenchman is liable to respond to a call in defence of his country, and that

none but Frenchmen are admissible into the army.* 
2d. The law fixing annually the number of recruits to be levied. 
3d. The annual appropriation act which fixes the number of men to be main-

tained in active service, and the number of those to be called for. 
The French army is recruited by drafting, voluntary enlistments, and re-en-

gagements of veteran soldiers, and is composed of- 
1st. The effective force maintained under arms. 
2d. The reserve, comprising the contingent not yet called in, and those who

are sent home in anticipation of the expiration of their term of service.

The annual levies are raised by drafts; every Frenchman who has attained

his twentieth year within the preceding twelve months is bound to present
him- 
self to the authorities of his district. The draft is made by cantons, and
the 
number of men furnished by the department and by canton is in proportion

to the number inscribed on the service rolls of each canton. 
Up to the year 1830 the annual contingent was based on the population; 
from 1831 to 1835 the proportion was graduated according to the average of

young men inscribed on the conscription lists of a certain number of years
pre- 
ceding.t Since 1836 the basis is no longer upon such average, but upon a
list 
of the year. 
-The law of March 9,1831, authorizes the formation of a foreign legion, under
condition 
that the same shall not be employed in France. The law of April 16, 1856,,
sanctions the 
I st and 2d foreign legions, forming two regiments of foreigners, whose service,
administration, 
pay, organization, &c., are assimilated to that of the infantry of the
line. 
tin explanation of the mode, a scale regulating the number of men to be drafted,
as fixed 
by the law of December 11, 1830, M. Lalanne, commissaire du Roy, says: "The
law of 
March 8, 1818, in the bill of the government presented the 'military population'
as a basis 
for the annual levy. The Chamber of Deputies substituted the whole population,
on the 
ground that it gave a basis for arriving at the desired result made for other
purposes than re- 
cruiting, and therefore not liable to be questioned. Since then, however,
increasing complaints 
have been made against the system, and a return to the basis of 'military
population' pro- 
posed. The commission charged by the government to prepare a new law has
examined 
into the merits of the three bases, i. e., the total population, the military
population deter- 
mined by the registers of the census, and which serves as the basis of the
draft, and the 
same population, deduction made of those whose size or infirmities render
them unfit for 
service. The commission has rejected the latter mode, as subject to serious
inconveniences. 
It weighs heavily upon districts furnishing the largest contingent of the
army, and tends to 
diminish the population both in numbers and in quality. The military board,
examining, 
moreover, only the fitness for service of the number necessary to complete
the contingent;