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    224 EDUCATION IN FRANCE.

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    *•»- . ; No. I.

    instruction to be given in them . A third , towards the close of the sanie year , prohibited the acceptance of any gratuitfrom the

    parents , on the part of the teachers , on pain of the loss y of their situation ; in the following * year various decrees provided that all

    children should learn the [ French _language , extended the limits of primary instructionand modified the circumscrition of the schools ;

    determined the rules , for the examination of teachers p , and granted them a retiring * pension ; decided that a suitable building' should

    be provided by the State for each school , and should serve also as a dwelling for the teacher ; and placed the Primary Schools under

    the superintendence of the municipal authorities . Another decree ordained that the teachers should be chosen by the maires and

    Municipal Councils ; and that their remuneration should consist of a residence and the amount paid by the parents .

    But the agitation of the time prevented these various decrees from being carried into effect . The _[ Revolution was destructive

    rather than constructive in its character ; and though many of the ideas thrown out during that momentous struggle were destined to

    bear fruit in after years , it was impotent to substitute better institutions in the place of those it had overthrown .

    At a later period , Napoleon , " building up a despotism on the foundations that had been laid for liberty" took advantage

    of the prostration and vacuity that followed the , _excesses of that great upheaving , and re-constructed the social edifice to the profit

    of his own ambition . The advantage to be derived from obtaining the command of the educational _dejDartment was too evident to

    escape the notice of his penetrating genius . As early as 1794 he re-organised the School of Medicine ; he subsequentlfounded the

    Schools of Pharmacy and of Lawand in 1806 he constituted y the University . ,

    The first idea of this last institution had seen the light in 1800 , when the Councils-Generalin a series of minutes published the

    fol-, lowing year by the Minister of the Interior , Chaptal , had expressed themselves in favor of the adoption of a national system of

    education , and had called for the re-establishment of the ancient Colleges under a form in harmony with the new political institutions ; the

    organisation of the staff of teachers under one chief ; the opening of primary schools , colleges , and private seminaries ; the

    appropriation of a portion of the public revenues to education , and the foundation of fellowships ; the subordination of pupils to teachers ,

    and of teachers to a constant discipline , and the authority of a Jury throug of Instruction hout France ; the and adoption of reli of gio an _^ _is unitary teaching programme as the basis of of studies

    intel-, lectual culture . Napoleon is often regarded as the inventor of the system of

    centralisation in France , which seems to aim at the absorption of all the national energies in the hands of the Government , and which

    presses with such ubiquitous constraint on the action of individuals

    224 Education In France.

    224 EDUCATION IN FRANCE .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), June 1, 1860, page 224, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01061860/page/8/