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Revolution of February broke out. Their pupils, 9,000 in 1809, 15,000 in 1830, numbered 20,000 in 1848. Their grant from Government at that time reached, as I have already mentioned, the sum of 1,500,000 francs; the sums received from scholars' fees for board and instruction exceeded 6,200,000 francs. The staff of professors and other school functionaries had never been so fully organised or so well paid. But the University had enemies whose attacks grew with time stronger and stronger; of these enemies the most persevering, passionate, and formidable were the clergy. Its lay character made it particular obnoxious to them; they constantly assailed it with the charge that it instructed and did not educate; they attacked its constitution, its studies, the orthodoxy of its teachers, and even their morality. It is difficult perhaps to find a perfectly precise sense for the charge that an institution instructs and does not educate, but it is well known with what great and damaging effect this charge can be used. The monopoly of the University made the charge the more dangerous, at the same time that this monopoly recruited the ranks of the University's chief assailants, the priests, with auxiliaries from quarters the most opposite, whose interests or whose principles it wounded. With the fall of the Orleans dynasty fell the privilege of the University. In 1848 the government of General Cavaignac struck the first blow at its academical organisation, which had remained unchanged since the Emperor Napoleon's decree first founded it in 1808. The 27 academies, which had carried on the administration of the University for forty years, were reduced to 20. Then came the law of March ments of public utility, have their rules of management for institutions depending upon them, which cannot be set aside by the directions of a testator. A commune is a public establishment, and the school of a commune follows a certain order of management fixed for such institutions. The congregation of the Christian Brothers is a recognised establishment of public utility, and the order of management of the Christian Brothers' schools is fixed by the statutes of the congregation, statutes which have had to obtain the Government's sanction.

In general, therefore, the action of founders is greatly limited in France, as compared with England.

A proper personne civile having been properly authorised to enjoy an endowment, the administrative authority does not further interfere. A man's heirs, however, may, if the legal conditions of his endowment are not complied with, bring an action before the ordinary legal tribunals for a restitution of the property to them.

15, 1850, the organic law which now governs public instruction in France, and which transformed the regulation of this instruction completely. By this law persons not members of the University became free to open schools, and the exclusive privilege of the University ceased. The shadow of a corporate and endowed existence which had been left to it ceased also; its endowment no longer appeared as an item of the public debt, its estates were made part of the public domain. Eighty-six academies, one for each department of France, at first replaced the old academical organisation of 1808; but very soon * these 86 academies were reduced to 16, each academy including in its district several departments; and this is the organisation in force at the present moment.

Before I come to the schools as they now exist a few words must be given to the immediate effect produced upon them by the legislation of 1850. The unsettled state of the times, the derangement of many private fortunes, and the opening of a number of private schools, at first affected the lycées very unfavourably. The sums received from the pupils in them for board and lodging fell from 6,204,693 francs in 1848 to 5,191,666 francs in 1851. This diminution in the receipts, as the State refused to make it good, necessitated a reduction in the payments to teachers and functionaries. With all the economy that could be exercised the embarrassment was great and increasing, when the government, in 1853, hit on the simple expedient of raising the fees for board and schooling, which had remained nearly stationary since they were first fixed in 1802. The fee for board in a Paris lycée had been 600, 700, 800, or 900 francs, according to the pupil's place in the school. It was now fixed at 950, 1,050, 1,150, and 1,500 francs. The fee for schooling, which had at first been a uniform fee of 60 francs, and then had been raised to 100 francs, was made, according to the subjects taught, 120, 150, 200, or 250 francs. Proportionate additions were made to the school charges in the departments, where these charges are always lower than in Paris.

Far from emptying the public schools, this rise in their

* In 1854.

charges answered perfectly. The old charges had been very low, the new charges were not in themselves high, and were accompanied by an improved and developed programme of studies. The return of tranquillity and the growing wealth and prosperity of the country enabled families to support them the more easily. The lycées filled again, and the new scale of charges produced an addition of 800,000 francs in the yearly amount received from their scholars. In 1855 the number of lycées, which had been 54 before the February Revolution, had risen to 63; the number of pupils in them, which had fallen to 19,000 in 1851, had in 1855 increased to 21,219. The communal colleges at the charge of the towns where they are situated had been less successful. The law of 1850 required every town which wished to preserve its communal college to bind itself to pay for five years its teachers' salaries; several municipalities refused to saddle themselves with this obligation. Their colleges passed out of their hands into those of a private proprietor, generally an ecclesiastic; and thus out of the spoils of the communal colleges, though not out of those of the lycées, the new private schools which the law of 1850 admitted into existence did, to a certain extent, enrich themselves. In 1857 the communal colleges were only 244 in number, having been 306 in 1849; eight of the chief of them, however, had in the meanwhile been converted into lycées. The pupils in the communal colleges had numbered 31,706 in 1849; in 1855 they numbered only 28,219.

So the public secondary schools of France had, in 1855, in round numbers, 49,500 scholars. The total expenditure for these schools was (again in round numbers) 19,500,000 francs, or 780,000l. The expenditure for the lycées was 480,000l.; that for the communal colleges 300,000l. For the lycées the State contributed about 76,000l. ;* for the communal colleges, which are municipal institutions, barely 4,000l. The State subvention for 1855 to French secondary instruction may be put, therefore, at about 80,000l.; the municipal subvention to the communal colleges amounted to

* 1,301,908 fr. for the dépenses fixes, and 635,237 fr. for scholarships.

nearly the same sum. There remained 620,000l. (216,000l. for the communal colleges, 404,000l. for the lycées) to be raised by the schools themselves. The State subvention, exclusive of the grant for scholarships, gave, in 1847,* an average of 28,900 francs for each of the 54 lycées then existing; in 1855, when the lycées numbered 63, the State subvention of the year gave an average of but 20,665 fr. for each lycée. The aid was insufficient even with the increased fees charged, and the total expenditure for 1855 on the lycées outran the total receipts by 354,052 francs, about 14,1607.

At the present moment France has 74 lycées, 20 more than she had in 1847, and 11 more than she had in 1855. She has 247 communal colleges, 59 less than she had in 1849, but three more than she had in 1857. In these schools she has 65,832 scholars; 32,794 in the lycées, 33,038 in the communal colleges. Thus the 74 lycées have very nearly as many pupils as all the 247 communal colleges together. And while the number of pupils in the lycées tends to increase, and is about 1,000 more this year than last, in the communal colleges it tends slightly to diminish, and is about 100 less. The state schools have altogether 15,000 more scholars than in 1855, a sign of the advance of the country in prosperity. The amount of state aid received by them is much higher than in 1855, a time of reduction and distress; it reaches, including the grant for state scholarships, 3,000,000 of francs in round numbers, a third more than in 1855, 120,000l. now to 80,000l. then. Of this sum the lycées receive 1,900,000 fr. for their fixed expenses, and 868,000 for bursarships;† the communal colleges receive 223,000 fr., having received less than 100,000 fr. in 1855. The mean rate of grant to each lycée is still, however, slightly below what it was in 1847, though nearly one-third greater than the rate of 1855. It is intended to place a lycée in every department of France, and five new ones are at the present time in progress.

* In this year the subvention was 1,560,750 fr.

†The actual number of bursarships in the French lycées is now 1,057, divided among 1,588 holders. It is worthy of note that the ten colleges of Paris alone, before the Revolution, had 1,046 bursars, almost the number of the bursarships for the whole of France at present.

CHAPTER III.

GOVERNMENT, ADMINISTRATION, AND TEACHING STAFF OF THE FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS AT PRESENT.

GOVERNMENT, ADMINISTRATION, AND ORGANISATION OF THE FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS MINISTRY OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION-IMPERIAL COUNCIL OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION-ACADEMIC COUNCILS-DEPARTMENTAL COUNCILS-INSPECTORS-GENEAS TO THEIR FUNCTIONARIES AND PROFESSORS-AGGREGATION THE NORMAL SCHOOL-POSITION AND PAYMENT OF TEACHERS IN THE FRENCH LYCÉES.

RAL-ADMINISTRATION OF THE FRENCH LYCÉES - REGULATIONS

E who has seen one lycée or communal college in France,

HI will not say has seen all, but at any rate may consider

that he can form for himself a pretty accurate notion of all. In all, the course of studies is very nearly the same, following programmes drawn up by authority. In all, the books used are very nearly the same, specified in a list drawn up by authority. In all, the professors and principal functionaries of every kind are appointed by the Minister of Public Instruction, and can be dismissed by him. In all, the arrangement and training of classes, the arrangements for boarding, the hours of work and recreation, the means of recreation, the mode of government, and the whole system of discipline, are the same.

The Minister of Public Instruction is the head of this vast organisation. His office, in Paris, has six divisions, under himself and his secretary-general. Each of these six divisions has its chief, and is divided into two bureaux, each, again, with its head. First come the three divisions for superior instruction, secondary instruction, primary instruction. The first bureau of each of these is for the personnel of the branch of public instruction administered by the division,-treats, that is, all matters relating to persons, appointments, and studies; the second bureau is for the matériel and comptabilité,-whatever relates to buildings, finance, or accounts.

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