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    364 EDUCATION IN TRANCE ,

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    4§Kb- ' No. Iii. The A Variety Present O...

    the Encouragement of Elementary Primary Instruction , " already alluded to in a former part of this sketch .

    In 1814 several philanthropists , including Count de la Borde , SayJomardthe Abbe Gauthier , etc ., liad visited Englandand

    observe , d the advant , ageous working of the system of Mutual Instruction , there established . In 1815 these gentlemen communicated the

    results of their observation to the Society for the Encouragement of National Industry , whose members subscribed the sum of five hundred

    francs in aid of their proposed attempt to found a school in Paris upon this system . Other subscribers were soon added to the list

    thus formed ; and on the 16 th of June , 1815 , was held the first General Assembly for the Improvement of Primary Instruction .

    Ere long the friends of the new society included Baron de Gerando , De LasteyrieMontignithe Duke de Larochefoucauld-Liancourt

    , , , Merimee , Haehette , Catteau-Calleville , and others of the most prominent men of the day , who took an active part in the movement ,

    and by their personal influence obtained from the government many concessions that would probably have been refused to less eminent

    supporters ; and in 1815 M . de Chabrol procured the creation , by M . de Vaublanc , Minister of the Interior , of a Council of Primary

    Instruction , composed of eleven members of the Elementary Society . This creation was followedin the course of a few monthsby the

    , , establishment of a course of Normal Instruction , for the training of teachers in the methods employed under the Mutual System .

    But notwithstanding these aj > parent successes , the new society was unable to cope effectually with the influence of the clergy ,

    sustained by the predilections and tendencies of the government ; and while the cause of popular education was making its way successfully

    in England , Holland , Sweden , Norway , Denmark , Prussia , Germany , and Switzerland , the quality of this branch of instruction in France

    remained , under the government of the Restoration , so low as to offer a melancholy contrast with that attained in those countries ;

    and it was not until the administration of M . Guizot and of M . de Salvandy—the former of whom released the Primary Schools from

    ecclesiastical thraldom , and brought them within the scope of the regular educational legislation of the country , while the latter

    completed that legislation by the establishment of Schools for Girls and of Infant Schools—that the department of Primary Education

    assumed tlie systematic character which , with certain modifications introduced by the legislative enactments of 18501852 , and 1854

    it possesses at the present day . , , It may be well here to remind the reader tliat , while France itself

    is divided into departments—answering to English _sliires or counties —each Department is again divided into communesor

    Circumscriptions , equivalent to rural parishes , but of a purely , civil character ; the cities being divided into _arronclissementsor wards .

    Each arrondissement _) or commune , has its own , elected Municipal or

    Communal Officers and Council , presided over by a _matre , raises a cer-

    364 Education In Trance ,

    364 EDUCATION IN TRANCE ,

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Aug. 1, 1860, page 364, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01081860/page/4/