hundred
and ninety-four lieutenant-colonels, 2113 commandants, 5041 captains,
5880 lieutenants, and 4833 sous-lieutenants. With such an array of
officers, it is scarcely to be wondered at that promotion in the
ordinary way was looked on as impossible, and the juggle of military
_pronunciamientos_ was regarded as almost the only means of rising in
the army. It was no uncommon thing to promise a rise of one grade
throughout a whole corps to compass one of these miniature revolutions.
However, all that is happily past. General Weyler,--whose name indicates
alien blood at some period of his family history,--the present Minister
of War, has taken the thorough reform of the army in hand, though it is
too soon to say if he will be as successful as is generally expected
from his known energy and common sense, since the work is only now in
progress.

One of the most fertile sources of disturbance in the old days of Isabel
II. was the presence of the _primo sargentos_. These petty officers,
having risen from the ranks, and invested with an authority for which
they were often quite unsuited, were always ready, for a consideration,
to aid the cause of some aspiring politician, now on one side, now on
another. They are now, fortunately, abolished.

The Spanish artillery is a splendid body, and is officered from the
best families in the country. In the only military insurrection in which
the common soldiers shot some of the officers obnoxious to them--that of
the Montano Barracks, in 1866--the leader of the mutinists was a certain
_hidalgo_. It was the promotion of this man that led indirectly to the
abdication of Don Amadeo, who opposed the action. Indignant at the
disgrace to the service, all of the artillery officers in Spain sent in
their resignations. They were accepted, and the _primo sargentos_ raised
to the rank of officers to fill their places. The result was unlimited
mutiny among the rank and file and danger to the State. Some of the
young officers who had retained their uniforms, though no longer
attached to the corps, finding the troops in utter disorder and revolt,
quietly donned their uniforms, went down to the barracks, and gave their
orders. The men instantly fell into the ranks, and the situation was
saved. The _primo sargentos_ were abolished, the officers reinstated.
But Amadeo had had enough; he ceased to attempt to reign
constitutionally in a country where the constitution meant only one more
form of personal