The use of air craft as military auxiliaries is not new. As early as 1812 the Russians, before retreating from Moscow, attempted to drop bombs from balloons: an attempt carried to success by Austrian engineers in 1849. Both contestants in our own War of Secession employed captive and drifting balloons. President Lincoln organized a regular aeronautic auxiliary staff in which one Lowe held the official rank of chief aeronaut. This same gentleman (who had accomplished a reconnaissance of 350 miles in eight hours in a 25,000 cubic foot drifting balloon) was subjected to adverse criticism on account of a weakness for making ascents while wearing the formal "Prince Albert" coat and silk hat! A portable gas-generating plant was employed by the Union army. We are told that General Stoneman, in 1862, directed artillery fire from a balloon, which was repeatedly fired at by the enemy, but not once hit. The Confederates were less amply equipped. Their balloon was a patchwork of silk skirts contributed (one doubts not, with patriotic alacrity) by the daughters of the Confederacy. It is not forgotten that communication between besieged Paris and the external world was kept up for some months during 1870-71 by balloons exclusively. Mail was carried on a truly commercial scale: pet animals and--the anticlimax is unintended--164 persons, including M. Gambetta, escaped in some sixty-five flights. Balloons were frequently employed in the Franco-Prussian contest; and they were seldom put _hors de combat_ by the enemy. During our war with Spain, aerial craft were employed in at least one instance, namely, at San Juan, Porto Rico, for reconnoitering entrenchments. Frequent ascents were made from Ladysmith, during the Boer war. The balloons were often fired at, but never badly damaged. Cronje's army was on one occasion located by the aid of a British scout-balloon. Artillery fire was frequently directed from aerial observations. Both sides employed balloons in the epic conflict between Russia and Japan. A declaration introduced at the second international peace conference at the Hague proposed to prohibit, for a limited period, the discharge of projectiles or explosives from flying machines of any sort. The United States was the only first-class power which endorsed the declaration. It does not appear likely, therefore, that international law will discountenance the employment of aerial craft in international disputes. The building of airships goes on with increasing eagerness. Last year the Italian chamber appropriated $5,000,000 for the construction and maintenance of flying machines.