By the terms of section 1 of the law of 3d September, 1814, (Collections of laws for the year 1814, p. 79,) every Prussian subject who has attained the age of twenty full years is obliged to serve in the army
In consequence, in each year all the young men of that age must present themselves at a certain time before the military commission of the circle in which they are domiciled, to be examined as to their fitness to render service, and designated, the case happening, to the detachment in which they are to be incorporated.
This obligation to present themselves for service is not extinguished by time. Whoever does not appear at the point indicated is held to serve at a more advanced age; and, if he can be got hold of, is enrolled under the flag before any other.
Service in the army in active employ lasts three years. (Section 6 of the law above mentioned.)
During the two years following, the soldier is dismissed on leave and belongs to the reserve; thenceforward he is not called into service until a war or an increase of the active force requires it.
After the expiration of these two years, the soldier passes for seven years into the first levy of landwehr, (land-guard,) which in time of peace musters only annually for some weeks of drill.
These seven years completed, the soldier becomes a member for seven years longer of the second levy of the landwehr, which is only called out in time of war.
Whoever evades the duties of the landwehr is obliged to take part therein at a later time, and his more advanced age does not exempt him from such call.
Emigration is not permitted, except with express leave from the government. This permission cannot be granted to males between seventeen and twenty-five years of age, unless they produce a certificate from the commission for recruiting the army, testifying that they do not propose to expatriate themselves for the sole purpose of evading their military obligations. (Section 17 of the law of 31st December, 1842, on the mode in which the quality of subject of Prussia is acquired and lost. Bulletin of the Laws of the year 1843, p. 15, et seq.)
This certificate serves also as a guide when it is required to determine if there is reason to grant to minors authority to emigrate with their parents.
Soldiers belonging to the army in active service, or to the reserve, do not obtain leave to expatriate themselves until they have been dismissed.
On the other hand, the service in the first or second levy of the landwehr does not prevent the person who may still be subject to such service from disengaging himself from the ties which bind him to his native land; one exception alone is made to this regulation, which is when the landwehr is called into active service.
Whoever leaves Prussia without permission, and thereby evades service either in the army, in active service, or the landwehr, incurs a penalty of 50 to 1,000 crowns, or incurs an imprisonment of one month to one year. (Section 110 of the Penal Code of April 14, 1851.)
But the payment of the penalty or the infliction of the punishment of imprisonment does not dispense with the obligation to render the military service. This obligation continues the rather until he who may have neglected his duty discharges it completely.
Proceedings are taken against such persons the moment it is perceived that they are [Page 1375] unlawfully absent, and without regard to the age they may mean time have attained.
The permission to emigrate, of which a formula is annexed to this memorandum, puts an end to the quality of Prussian subject, (section 20 of the law of December 31, 1842,) and whoever has obtained it is no longer under any obligation to serve in the army. Unless there be a formal exception, this permission embraces also the wife of the individual to whom it has been granted, as well as the minor children, who are still subject to the paternal authority.