ART. II.-Letters on the State of Education, and of the Press, in France. From the Correspondent, No. II.

Sir,

To the Honourable W. L.

USTLY observing, that as in the words of one of your philo

sophic poets the child is parent of the man,' so Education is the root of Politics, you tell me there is nothing in France, about which you so much desire to be well informed, as the state of education. I shall feel an equal honour and pleasure in conveying that information to you; but we must begin by defining what we mean by the term education.

The meaning of this word, like that of most words relating to similar subjects, has various degrees of extension, and some confusion may arise if we do not state its principal distinctions. In the first place, then, taken in its widest import, it comprehends all the means used in the development of the human faculties; moral, intellectual, and physical; so that, among us, a good education is that, which, in forming the heart, has cultivated the mind, and improved the qualities of the body. But we also use the word in a more limited sense, to signify merely the culture of the understanding; for it cannot be denied that the principal object of our public schools is mental instruction: to this all the cares of the masters and the efforts of the pupils are directed; this is the point, toward which all the motives of emulation concur; and on this depend all those brilliant rewards which are every year assigned to exertion, forming at once the encouragement of the student and the glory of the professor. The natural goodness of man is so far relied on, as to allow a presumption, that the mind, well enlightened, will prove a sufficient guide for the heart. It is expect. ed that the examples of parents, the indirect lessons of masters, the subjects selected for lectures and compositions, the study of good authors, regularity of discipline, and religious habits especially, will be more effectual than courses of moral instuctions, which might possibly fail to be interesting. Hence the disregard of those physical regulations, which the ancient Greeks and Romans deemed necessary in their constitutions, where every citizen, being necessarily destined to be a soldier, was formed to become robust ere he became intelligent. It seems probable that, among the ancients, this bodily training was the only kind of public instruction; and that all the rest was left to the discretion of individuals. Rhetoricians opened schools, which were undoubtedly sanctioned, but not paid, by the government; and with the exception of Xenophon's Cyropædia, and Plato's Republic, it may be doubted whether the ancients had any idea of what we call Public Instruction.

The system of education adopted generally, with some few modifications, throughout modern Europe, is that which we, after some fruitless experiments, have retained. It is founded principally on the study of the dead languages. I shall not pause to

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inquire, whether this mode of instruction be attended with inconveniences, or whether a better might not be substituted. I look only on its effects; I see it practised particularly among yourselves, where it produces profound reasoners and statesmen of the first eminence. We also owe to it the illustrious period of our literature, and, as Sallust observes, 'imperium facilè iisdem artibus retinetur, quibus initio partum est.' I cannot impute blame to our predecessors; and without contemptuously rejecting the theories of innovators in education, I think they might be applied to the improvement of the existing system, but so as not to risk its entire subversion. For, doubtless, the rising generation must suffer from that fluctuation of plans and ideas, that varying succession of contradictory schemes, that rage for censuring whatever is, without the power of substituting something better. Education, above all concerns, requires constancy of method, and an uninterrupted regularity throughout all the degrees of its progress. You, more fortunate than ourselves, have made no changes; and your schools, enjoying throughout Europe a well-deserved reputation, have not, like ours, extensive ruins to repair, and chasms to fill up. Your universities still shine with the same splendour; while our re-established institutions have at once their own glory to achieve, and the glory of their predecessors to sustain: you are not, however, to suppose that the state of learning in France is so deplorable

as

some gloomy censors represent it, who, shocked by certain particular abuses, attack the general system, and who, indulging ancient recollections, imagine that the future ought in all particulars to resemble the past; like an unskilful physician, who should be surprised at finding his patient, on recovering from a violent fever and delirium, with less strength of body and mind than he had before. Nay further: if learning in some provinces be less prosperous than formerly, at Paris on the contrary it is understood to flourish more vigorously than ever; ampler means of instruction are afforded to youth, and better use is made of them. If, during à season of trouble, morals have been neglected, mind certainly has not. The sciences, especially, have been cultivated with care, and it would be impossible to find in all Europe, a body of professors constituted like that of the Academy of Paris. It is here that some details will be necessary; and for the sake of order, I shall arrange what I have to state to you, under the separate heads of primary, secondary, and special instruction.

Primary Instruction.

This charge, formerly, and even at present intrusted to religious societes, namely, the Ignorantine Friars, for boys, and the Charitable Sisterhood for girls, did not admit of very great extension for the labouring classes. Some persons, prone to indiscriminate censure, have reflected bitterly on these schools and their founders. Doubtless their means of instruction were limited, and the masters sometimes well deserve their appellation of Ignorantines. But what men could the villages and country towns employ in gratuitous

instruction, except those who made the vow of poverty, and were always sufficiently acquainted with it, to fulfil their modest functions? This was the best resource that then existed. But it is certainly desirable that the method of Bell and Lancaster, introduced among us, should be more and more encouraged, because it will afford a remedy for the inconveniences complained of. Its daily progress already seems to promise permanent success. From Paris, where it has received some advantageous modifications, it is extending into the departments; and is there beginning to be practised. In the capital there are now twelve schools opened, and the number of their pupils is daily augmenting. Besides the original school in the street of St. Jean de Beauvais, which receives more than four hundred children, two Protestant schools have been established in the street des Billettes. The Duchess of Duras has founded a school for girls in the street de Fleurus. There are others in different quarters; and each of these establishments has, on an average, from 1000 to 1200 pupils; so that the number of children receiving this species of instruction will soon exceed that of the children taught by the old method. You see that by perseverance this beneficial system has been brought to bear among us, and that the obstacles raised against it by prejudice and ignorance are giving way. The circumstance which tended to throw discredit on this system in the eyes of some persons, already alarmed at the idea of innovation, and perhaps possessed with the notion, that there is danger in instructing the common people, was the manner, in which it was first introduced. You may remember that it began to take effect in consequence of a decree of Buonaparte, during the hundred days. But it is to be hoped, that the advantages obviously resulting from it, will defeat the opposition, which indolence and an adherence to routine presented to its establishment. Those, indeed, are the only hindrances, to which this system of teaching is liable, now that the civil and ecclesiastical authorities concur in sanctioning it. Such, then, is the instruction destined for the common people; it consists in reading, writing, and arithmetic. I now proceed to that which offers itself to the higher classes, and which, as already stated, is founded on the study of languages. This is what I term secondary instruction.

Secondary Instruction.

Before the Revolution, this instruction was derived from different sources. Besides the University, several religious bodies devoted themselves to the education of youth. Among these were distinguished the Oratorians, the Doctrinaries, and some Benedictines. I make no mention of the Genorefins, and the Theatins, because they laboured, intrà privatos muros, rather for their young proselytes than for others. Such were those bodies now so much spoken of, and the loss of which some persons, at the present day, regret, without considering, that all those houses

were rich and well endowed, and that consequently they would not now have the same means of doing good. I doubt much whether men of talent would be at present desirous of belonging to those societies, since their existence would become totally precarious, and dependent on the uncertain success of a new establishment. Besides, where are now to be found the corner-stones of those institutions, when the old members of those societies have either fallen victims to the Revolution, or are employed in the present University. During an interruption of twenty-six years, how many losses, how many changes have occurred! In 1791 the oaths then exacted, occasioned many religious houses to be closed. The others scarcely subsisted until 1793, when anarchy became predominant. This interregnum of education lasted until 1796, when the Normal School was founded, which numbered among its professors the celebrated Laharpe. This was soon succeeded by the institution of central schools; and they, in 1808, gave place to the establishment of the University. In the Central Schools, instruction was more diversified, and some further scope was given to the study of the sciences, which does not now enter into the plan of the existing classes. The concerns of instruction were superintended by a Director-general, which appointment was replaced by that of Grand-Master of the University, with a numerous train of officers. The jurisdiction of each court of appeal formed an academy, whose chief, or rector, corresponded at Paris with the Grand-Master. Houses of instruction, called Lyceums, were established, and inferior ones, denominated Colleges. Private institutions were required to frequent the public schools, and attend the lectures of professors, appointed and paid by authority. To obtain admission into them, the pupil must have previously construed Phædrus and Cornelius Nepos; he then entered into what was called the fifth class, and subsequently into the fourth, forming together the Grammatical Course; he then passed successively into the third and second, called the course of the Humanities, in order to arrive at Rhetoric. Other professors were appointed to teach Mathematics, Physics, and Philosophy. Such were the objects of the public studies. The Grand-Master and his train were superseded in 1815 by a Council of Public Instruction, with its President; and afterwards by a Provisional Committee, of five members; but no change has been made, either in the organization of houses of instruction, or in the systems of studies. They have merely suppressed the name of Lyceums, and adopted that of Royal Colleges; the other establishments are called Communal Colleges. Such is the present state of things, and we are daily expecting a law which is to determine the fate of what we call the University. I do not think it will affect the mode of instruction; but doubtless it may produce some change in the present system of centralization, and, above all, restore to the professorships somewhat of that independence which men of science cannot dispense with. It is but a slender recompense for the ardu

ous toil which they undergo in preparing youth for their outset in public life, and providing them with the various means of entering upon the career that is opened to them. Education, as yet, exists only in outline; and the pupils have been stinted in the aids requisite for perfecting those talents which their instructors endeavoured to develop in them. These form the objects of special instruction.

Special Instruction.

There are schools for the Arts, but they are beyond the sphere of the University, which has five faculties or branches of special instruction; Theology, Jurisprudence, Medicine, Sciences, and Letters. In each faculty are opened different lectureships by eminent professors, of whom France has reason to be proud. Their lectures, attended by a multitude of amateurs, are particularly frequented by the pupils of a normal school, founded for young persons destined for professorships, and by others desirous of taking their degrees in the different faculties. These degrees are three in number; Bachelor, Licentiate, and Doctor. The Academy of Paris, solely, posseses the five faculties; the others have one, two, or three, according to their local necessities. I have to observe, that the chairs of the College of France, of the King's Garden, of oriental living languages, as also the Polytechnic school, those of bridges and roads, and of mines, are not in the jurisdiction of the University.

From this succinct and rapid view, you may perceive that the means of instruction are not wanting in France, and that education is not in such jeopardy as some persons are inclined to represent it. The tempest has raged; our vessel has been shattered; but from its wreck we have constructed another, which, with labour and time, may acquire solidity. Only let no attempt be made, while its parts are but slightly joined and imperfectly secured, to disturb it by imprudent shocks and movements, which may irrecoverably destroy it.

In thus opening the subject to you, Sir, (for I have done nothing more,) I point the way to further and more detailed research, in which, if agreeable to you, my assistance shall not be wanting. You will see that there is much curious and even important matter to be learnt respecting the ancient religious bodies, who devoted their labours (as I have above noticed) to the work of education; as well as respecting the ancient University. These subjects, by dint of becoming obsolete, if I may so speak, have again become new: I doubt not, at least, that they would be so considered in England. We have other points of curious disquisition, which having risen up and again disappeared, in the ocean of our unhappy Revolution, possess a novelty of a different kind. Such are the brief memoirs of the institution of Central Schools; and the still more curious and piquant history of the administration of the University, under Buonaparte. Add to this the peculiar organi