and superior grade) - Teachers, their number and status as regards diplomas and the average size of schools under a head teacher-Attendance upon normal schools-School savings banks decreasing, but deposits increasing-Communal funds in aid of pupils; decline in numbers, but increase in receipts and disbursements-Current expenditure for primary instruction; amounts showing increase for three successive years; also increase of communal appropriations for optional expenditure-Decline of illiteracy among conscripts--Department of secondary instruction, including lycées and communal colleges; difficulties in the way of modifying the traditional course of study and end of the lycées as typified in the bachelor's degree-Recent modifications and final proposal to abolish the baccalaureate-Department of superior instruction; the law inresting the faculties with the legal title of university, the crown of a series of measures developing the essential conditions of university life; text of the law; elaboration of its motives and purposes in the speeches of the minister of public instruction and of the director of superior instruction; details of the scholastic and financial demands to which its provisions are addressed, especially emphasized in the speech of M. Louis Liard-Requirements for admission to the French faculties; statement by M. Paul Melon, showing in detail the requirements for admission to the several faculties of France for candidates who aspire to degrees-Status of medical students in France under the latest official regulations. APPENDIX-Education in France, with especial reference to the lycées, by Dr. Alcée Fortier.

Summary of educational statistics, 1894-95.

France presents the highest type of a centralized, unified State system of education. The form of organization is substantially that of the Imperial University established by Napoleon in 1808, and invested with the monopoly of teaching throughout the State. The system suited admirably the purpose for which it was created, namely, that of making a professional service that would furnish careers for subservient talent and at the same time afford a channel for the general diffusion of imperial ideas. In maintaining the form of this system, at least as regards its main features, the Republic has had also the purpose to infuse into it the spirit of liberty and to make it the means of encouraging free initiative. This interesting experiment has illustrated in a very striking manner the cast and temper of the national genius.

The executive chief of the system is a cabinet officer-the minister of public instruction, fine arts, and worship. The portfolio generally changes hands with every cabinet crisis,' but the permanency and steady progress of the system is not seriously affected thereby, as the directors of the three great departments of the system, i. e., primary, secondary, and superior, are retained for long periods, and even when changes occur the vacancy is generally filled by the logical successor of the departing officer. Thus, after nearly twenty years of service as director of primary instruction, M. Ferdinand Buisson has just been transferred to the Sorbonne to fill the chair of pedagogy made vacant by the death of M. Henri Marion. The directorship in the ministry is filled by the transfer of M. Charles Bayet, who, as rector of the Academy of Lille, has given proof of his adherence to the ideal of the Republic.

Each of the three great departments is charged with the interests of the corresponding grade of education; each has its separate budget and distinct body of laws, decrees, etc. The correlation of these separate orders is effected through the local or geographical divisions of the system. These are academies, seventeen in number, each of which comprises, under the general direction of a rector (appointed by the minister), all the schools, colleges, and faculties (university) of the respective districts. The central authority does not hold undivided sway in academic districts; within each there is a system of primary schools established by the communes and supported and controlled in part by communal funds and authorities; there are also communal colleges or lower grade classical schools which are aided by the State, but established and partly controlled by local managers. Above these are the State classical colleges (lycées), which, until a very recent date, were rigidly controlled by State decrees; and crowning all are the faculties that, as we shall presently see, are now transformed into universities.

The superior council of public instruction is the great deliberative head of the State system. Its prototype was the council of the Imperial University, a body appointed by the grand master and subject to his will. The change in the constitution of this council is a striking illustration of the movement toward professional liberty which the Republic has fostered. Of the sixty members of the present council one-fourth only serve by appointment of the President of the Republic; the remaining three-fourths are chosen by their peers from the three orders of instruction.

A recent project for the reform of the council proposed the admission of members representing interests distinct from education, i. e., the

"The present minister is M. Rambaud, who succeeded M. Combees April 29, 1896.

M. Buisson's appointment dates from 1879, Jules Ferry being then minister of education.

It will be observed that the word academy is here used in a special sense; it means neither a school nor a society of learned men, but a district of educational administration, a division of the State system officered by Government appointees. These must, however, be men of approved scholastic attainments; thus the academy rector must be a graduate with the doctor's degree.

"The directorships of superior and secondary instruction are held, respectively, by M. Louis Liard and M. Rabier.

tion presupposes, as a rule, a certain degree of intelligence and energy, and those who in this manner create new societies, understanding the value of instruction, wish to assure its benefits to their children. There are, no doubt, exceptions to the rule. The Slavic race which is pouring itself into America at present disquiets the American educators on account of its ignorance, and La Plata, which is principally colonized by southern Europeans, counts a large number of illiterates. When a colony contains inferior races, as coolies, negroes, etc., like Rèunion, the Cape of Good Hope, French Guiana, and New Caledonia, then the ignorant preponderate and the level of instruction is very low.

From this it may be concluded that race and climate exercise some influence upon primary instruction. It is only the people inhabiting southern Europe or the hot countries of South America that have an enrollment in school of fewer than 10 pupils for every 100 inhabitants, except in Russia, Finland, and Manitoba, which are laboring under special climatic and social conditions. The Teutonic race, comprising the Scandinavians, Germans, Dutch, and Anglo-Saxons, appears in our day to occupy the first rank as far as concerns the development of primary instruction, and it must be admitted that these races are mainly Protestant. The Slavic race, and still more the Mongolian, are evidently the least advanced races inhabiting Europe. Outside of Europe most of the countries that are peopled by half-breeds of Indian and Spaniard stock are on a still lower level.

But the severity of a winter climate is no insurmountable obstacle to instruction, as is proved by the Scandinavian States and Canada. During the long months of winter, when all agricultural labor must cease, the farmer can send his children to the village school or teach them at home, though during the summer, when the stock are in the pasture, and especially during the busy days of harvest, the children can not be spared. These conditions occur in the most widely separated countries, whether it be the United States, or Switzerland, or France.

It is legitimate to inquire what effect the relatively great wealth of a nation has upon the education of its people. As it is necessary to expend constantly very large sums in order to educate the whole mass of a nation, it is indisputable that the possession of wealth gives great facilities to popular education. The Australasian colonies and the United States seem to be the countries where the expenditure is largest per capita of population and of attendance at school; but as the relation of the expenditures to the attendance is far from being exact, it is better not to be too positive in laying down the rank that each State is entitled to from such data, for Switzerland and Scandinavia, although only moderately wealthy, instruct their children well. Certain it is, however, that the absence of pecuniary resources in the open country is an obstacle to securing satisfactory schools in such localities, and this obstacle is, especially in Russia, one of those that neutralizes the zealous activity of educators. If the influence exerted by rich manufacturing industries is inquired into, it is found that on the one hand they permit the maintenance of large schools well fitted with apparatus and placed in the immediate vicinity of the pupil's home, but that on the other hand the business of the city, the seat of large industries, attracts the children by the opportunity of earning money (appât de salaire), thus tending to take the pupils at an early hour from the school, and, further, that for various reasons the large cities are not always the most favorable places for attendance.

The school serves to instruct youth, but it also propagates ideas that will constitute the national spirit. This it accomplishes through nearly every branch of instruction, especially through the teaching of geography, history, and civics, but the most effective work in this line is done by the personality of the teacher. This tendency of the elementary school should not be disguised, for it is legitimate. It is necessary that in each nation there should exist above the clashing of ideas, of classes, and special interests a certain national spirit which binds together the ED 96-20

departments of justice, commerce, industry, etc.; this project failed, but the fact that after thirty years' discussion the idea has at last been submitted to formal debate, indicates that professional exclusiveness will find its limits. So far as education is concerned, the present council is eminently a representative body, even women who are inspectresses of infant schools or directresses of normal schools being eligible to membership.

Nine of the members appointed by the President and six elected members constitute a permanent section, which meets every week. The entire council holds two annual sessions-one in July, the other in December.

The permanent section deliberates upon matters which are to be submitted to the general council, and offers its advice upon the same. These matters relate to programmes and regulations for all classes of schcols, the creation of university courses or facultés, of lycées, and of normal schools, the multiplication of chairs, choice of text-books, and, in short, to all questions pertaining to studies, administration, discipline, and standards which may be submitted by the minister. These questions are eventually deliberated in the general council, which prescribes the course of instruction in all public schools and determines the conditions under which private schools may be opened.

The council is also a final court of appeal from judgments rendered by the academic or departmental councils in certain cases of discipline or contention. The deliberations of the council are presided over by the minister.

In each "académie" there is a council for the assistance of the rector, composed of members chosen for the most part by their peers, and representing the two higher orders of instruction, to whose interests the deliberations of the council are confined.

Finally, in each department there is a council of primary instruction composed of members of the superior council and primary school directors, under the presidency of the prefect, which deliberates, advises, and renders judgment in certain matters pertaining to primary schools.

THE DEPARTMENT OF PRIMARY INSTRUCTION-STATE INSPECTION OF PRIMARY SCHOOLS.

The State maintains a very close and intimate inspection of primary schools by means of a graded series of inspectors, (1) general inspectors, including nine assigned to particular sections of the country, several assigned to the oversight of special branches of study, and general inspectresses of infant schools. These officials report directly to the minister as to the manner in which the educational law is carried out. (2) Academic inspectors (inspecteurs d'académie), one for each department, who are subordinate to the rectors. They have the general direction of primary schools, conduct examinations for teachers' certifi

'The prefect is a civil officer, the chief of a department.