nearer discharge and the Army a profitable riddance. After one term of
service a reenlistment would be quite apt to secure a contented recruit
and a good soldier.

The Acting Judge-Advocate-General reports that the number of trials by
general courts-martial during the year was 2,328, and that 11,851 trials
took place before garrison and regimental courts-martial. The suggestion
that probably more than half the Army have been tried for offenses,
great and small, in one year may well arrest attention. Of course many
of these trials before garrison and regimental courts-martial were for
offenses almost frivolous, and there should, I think, be a way devised
to dispose of these in a more summary and less inconvenient manner than
by court-martial.

If some of the proceedings of courts-martial which I have had occasion
to examine present the ideas of justice which generally prevail in these
tribunals, I am satisfied that they should be much reformed if the honor
and the honesty of the Army and Navy are by their instrumentality to be
vindicated and protected.

The Board on Fortifications or other defenses, appointed in pursuance of
the provisions of the act of Congress approved March 3, 1885, will in a
short time present their report, and it is hoped that this may greatly
aid the legislation so necessary to remedy the present defenseless
condition of our seacoasts.

The work of the Signal Service has been prosecuted during the last
year with results of increasing benefit to the country. The field of
instruction has been enlarged with a view of adding to its usefulness.
The number of stations in operation June 30, 1885, was 489. Telegraphic