Drafting in France.
The New York Express gives the following description of the French method of drafting:‘ To illustrate the mode in which the drawing takes place, we will suppose that a particular commune is required to furnish 100 conscripts, the total number of eligible young men being say 500. Five hundred bits of paper are placed in an arm, of which 400 are blanks, and the remainder marked from one to one hundred, oblige their holders to ‘"fall in."’ --The four hundred who have escaped are now exempted from military service, unless some extraordinary event, such as an invasion of France, should demand the calling out of the entire arms bearing population.
The mode of raising recruits, as has been seen, is simple enough. As regards exemptions the French system is scarcely less simple. In the first place the conscripts undergo a rigid medical examination, and if any ere found laboring under physical disability, they are at once discharged. Next in order are the exemptions of soutiens de famille or individuals with families dependent upon them. Thus the only son of a widowed mother is exhausted. So also is the brother of an orphan sister. Brothers of a soldier still serving in the army are exempted until the father's term shall expire, only one of a family being drawn at one time.
A wife cannot exempt her husband, even if there be children, as the law holds that young men ought not to marry until they have fulfilled their military obligations to the State. A last class of exemptions has a pecuniary feature. In former years — that is to say up to 1855 --no conscript not exempt by physical disability, or by the other causes above enumerated, could escape service, except by procuring a substitute. This had given rise to a degrading species of trade or speculation, in which a large number of man-sellers and buyers were engaged. But, under the system referred to, the conscript who bought a substitute was responsible for his substitute, and if the latter deserted or died before the expiration of the seven years term, was liable to be forced back into the ranks.
This system was abolished in 1856 by order of the Emperor, and the Government itself now accepts pecuniary indemnity for the withdrawal of a conscript, and practically pays for his substitute by offering an ample bounty to volunteers. It is arranged that the sum received and paid by Government shall vary according to the military exigencies of the country, but the present basis is as follows: A conscript is exempted for 2,400 francs, ($480,) and the Government pays a bounty to volunteers amounting to 2,200 francs, ($440) making a profit of 200 francs by the exchange.
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