"To make it [the militia] efficient, only two things are wanting; first, there must be no exempts for any cause other than moral imbecility, as lunacy and idiotism; for all physical defects should only excuse the person from personal service by paying a fixed equivalent: second, those who did not come under either of the above causes should personally do duty."--_Adjutant-General Dearborn of Massachusetts._ "The full age of twenty-one years has been assumed by the Board as the best period for the commencement of service in the ranks of the militia. It will be perceived that the scheme of enrolment proposed rendered any other limitation as to age, than that just stated, unnecessary; it being probable that the minimum quota would be obtained in any State, without going higher than the ages of thirty or twenty-nine, and in some of the States not higher than twenty-six or twenty-five, even with the present population."--_Major-General Winfield Scott, U. S. A., Report of Board of Officers, 1826._ "In general, the military laws of the Cantons ... do not permit substitutes."--_General Dufour, Commander-in-chief of the Swiss Army._ [I] "The militia, as it is now organized, is a mere school of titles, where honors are conferred more from a sense of the qualification of the individuals,"--_Governor Cole of Illinois._ "The first measure to be adopted by the State governments against incompetency is the appointment of a board of officers of character and experience, such as may be found in every State at the present time, to examine rigidly every officer elect, and pronounce upon his fitness for the position: their decision to be final."--_Colonel Henry Lee, Jr._ [J] "Without discipline firmly administered, and regulations founded on a just appreciation of the difficulties and ends of a soldier's life, a militia organization only tends to give a false idea of the duties of a soldier, and is totally useless for the purposes of war or police.... During the periods of drill, the English militia man is placed on almost the same footing as the regular soldier; and insubordination and disorder, mutiny and desertion, are repressed and chastised by penalties and punishments, not only of extreme severity, but involving the deepest disgrace."--_Brigadier-General De Peyster, Report to the Governor of New York on Municipal Military Systems of Europe, 1851._ [K] "The Board, in the plan of organization, proposes an Adjutant-General, without rank, for the whole militia of the United States. The importance of such an officer, attached to the War Department, it is believed, could not be too highly estimated."--_Major-General Winfield Scott._ REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. _What I saw on the West Coast of South and North America, and at the Hawaiian Islands._ By H. WILLIS BAXLEY, M. D. New York: D. Appleton & Co.