ee
people at the risk of his own.

The Swedish militia is commanded by officers of the regular army. No
man can receive a commission in the militia unless he has spent at
least sixteen months in the military academy and passed the required
examinations. About a thousand young men are graduated each year from
the several schools situated in different parts of the country, which
are a part of the regular educational system of the nation. Thus the
government has at its command abundant material for the military
organization. The officers are promoted as vacancies occur, are
retired on half pay when they are aged or disabled--generals at 65
years, colonels at 60, lieutenant colonels and majors at 55, and
captains at 50. Militia officers are eligible to appointments in the
civil service; they may be elected to the riksdag, and they have the
same social standing at the palace as the officers of the regular
army. The palace is the center of the social system in Sweden, and
only certain persons are eligible to invitations to the king's balls
and dinners. All officers of the militia are included in the list,
and all peasants in the riksdag, although their wives are never
invited.[h]

CHAPTER IX

PUBLIC EDUCATION

There are few countries in which education is as free as in Sweden.
From the grammar school to the university in all its stages, the cost
is defrayed entirely by the state or the parish. Education is thus not
a privilege of the wealthy, but a benefit common to all.

In Norway you are scarcely ever out of sight of a schoolhouse, and
Professor Nielsen, of the university, on being asked concerning the
ratio of the illiterates, looked surprised and replied that he was not
aware of any illiterates; that he did not recollect having seen any
statistics on the subject, and ventured to assert that anybody in
Norway could both read and write.

Education is free throughout the entire primary system, a course of
seven years, between the ages of seven and fourteen, when the law
prohibits the employment of children in any occupation, and requires
them to attend school at least thirty hours a week for twelve weeks
each year in the country and fifteen weeks in the cities. The maximum
term is forty weeks in both city and country districts. There are in
the kingdom 5,923 school districts, governed by _Skolestyret_--boards
consisting of the parish priest, the president of the municipal
council, and one of the teachers cho