ul stimulus to exertion and
good conduct.

A portion of the cadets are instructed every day in fencing and riding.
When well advanced in the latter, they are taught spearing rings or
stuffed heads at the gallop, and the same with the sword. The
riding-school is perfectly abominable, being dark, full of pillars, and
most completely out of harmony with all the rest of the establishment,
which is excellent in every detail. On Sundays all the cadets attend
church, unless excused on conscientious motives, and with the approval
of their parents. The minister is selected by the President, and may be
of any denomination. I was told that an Episcopalian had been most
frequently chosen. The present minister is, I believe, a Presbyterian.
During the months of July and August the cadets all turn out of their
barracks, pitch their tents, and live regular camp life--only going to
the barracks to eat their meals. During the time they are tented, the
education is exclusively military practice; the same hours are kept as
in the barracks; the tents are boarded, and two cadets sleep in each.
They are all pitched with scrupulous accuracy, and they are obliged to
keep their camp as clean as a new pin--performing among themselves every
duty of a complete regiment--cleaning their own shoes, fetching their
own water, &c. They were all in tents at the time of my visit, and I
fear not particularly comfortable, for there had been two days and
nights' hard rain, and the wet mattresses were courting the warm rays of
the afternoon sun. Whatever jobbery is attempted in the selection of
candidates for admission to the Academy, is soon corrected by the
Academy itself; for, though the entrance examination is simple to a
degree, the subsequent examinations are very severe, and those who
cannot come up to the mark get notice to quit; and the unerring
tell-tale column of demerit soon obliges the turbulent to "clear out."

The result of this system is, that when I saw them under arms, their
soldierlike appearance struck me very much; and the effect produced upon
them by discipline was very marked. You might almost guess the time they
had been there by their gentlemanly bearing, a quality which they do not
readily lose; for the officers of the American army who have been
educated at West Point, enjoy a universal reputation for intelligence
and gentlemanly bearing wherever they are to be met with.

The discipline here is no fiction; they do not play at sold