LANDWEHR  , a

German word meaning " defence of the country "; but the term as applied to an insurrectional militia is very ancient, and " lantveri " are mentioned in Baluzii Capitularia, as quoted in Hallam's Middle Ages, i . 262, loth ed . The landwehr in Prussia was first formed by a royal edict of the 17th of March 1813, which called up all men capable of bearing arms between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, and not serving in the regular army, for the defence of the country . After the peace of 1815 this force was made an integral part of the Prussian army, each brigade being composed of one line and one landwehr regiment . This, however, retarded the mobilization and diminished the value of the first line, and by the re-organization of 1859 the landwehr troops were relegated to the second line . In Austria the landwehr is a totally different organization . It is in reality a cadre force existing alongside the regular army, and to it are handed over such recruits as, for want of vacancies, cannot be placed in the latter . In Switzer-land the landwehr is a second line force, in which all citizens serve for twelve years, after passing twelve in the " Auszug " or field army .