"The officer in command of a regiment can increase or reduce punishments; he can even cancel them. In that case, he points out to the officer or non-commissioned officer the mistake he has made, and orders him to cancel himself the punishment he has inflicted...." The Captain in command of a squadron can increase a punishment inflicted by one of his direct subordinates. He cannot, however, reduce such punishment without the Colonel's leave. PUNISHMENT OF OFFICERS. The following are the punishments which may be inflicted on regimental officers: (a) Arrêts simples (confinement to rooms). (b) Reprimand by Colonel. (c) Arrêts de rigueur (strict confinement to room). (d) Arrêts de forteresse (confinement in a fortress). (e) Reprimand by a General. A Lieutenant can inflict a punishment of four days _arrêts simples_ on a Sub-lieutenant; a Captain a punishment of eight days on any officer of lower rank; a Captain of a squadron fifteen days on officers of his own squadron; a Major fifteen days, and the Colonel thirty days, on any officer of a rank lower than their own. An officer thus placed under arrest must attend to his military duties as usual, but in the intervals he must keep to his room, and may receive no visits except official ones. _Arrêts de rigueur_ (viz., confinement to the room, with a sentry posted at the door) and _arrêts de forteresse_ can be inflicted by the Colonel alone. He can give any officer under his orders thirty days of the former and fifteen days of the latter. (In no case can an officer apply for a court-martial, as in England. In some regiments, especially in the line, officers get punished more frequently than privates get mere C.B. in a British regiment.) "The punishment begins from the moment it has been inflicted." Let it be also noted that an officer can inflict a punishment on any other officer inferior in rank to himself, to whatever squadron he may belong, and can similarly punish officers of other regiments; and, as stated before, any officer in the navy can punish an officer in the army of inferior rank, and _vice versâ_! Recent events in France give special interest to this subject, and I will therefore give some account of various other punishments which can be inflicted upon French officers without enabling them to appeal to a court-martial. The question is, indeed, one of such high interest at the present juncture that I will quote verbatim from the Army Regulations: "When an officer commits a fault, which--without being such as to entail the loss of his commission or his being sent before a court-martial--is still serious enough to require a heavier punishment than those above described, he can be suspended (placed in _non-activité_) or his commission can be cancelled (_ils peuvent être mis en réforme_)." The _non-activité_, which means the temporary exclusion from the service, is determined by decree of the President of the Republic upon the report of the Minister of War.