The pupils were admitted through an examination; they could not be less
than sixteen nor more than twenty years of age, unless they had served
two years under the flag; in that case, the limit of age was fixed at
twenty-five. Since the re-establishment of the Republic, these
regulations have been somewhat modified. The number of pupils admitted
annually is now from two hundred and twenty to two hundred and fifty; it
is, perhaps, worthy of notice that the number of applicants, after
having reached its maximum, seventeen hundred and twenty-nine, in 1893,
has since greatly declined,--sixteen hundred and seventy in 1894,
fifteen hundred and twenty-six in 1895, and twelve hundred and
ninety-nine in 1896. The institution is now designed especially to
furnish trained men for the artillery, marine and land; for military
engineering; for maritime engineering; for the national marine; the
corps of hydrographic engineers; the commissariat of the marine; the
bridges and highways; mines; State manufactures, in which are included
tobacco, gunpowder, and saltpetre; and the telegraph. At its foundation,
in 1794, the pupils were not lodged in barracks, but billeted upon
private citizens, and they received an annual allowance of twelve
hundred francs; at the present day, this allowance is reduced to a
thousand francs, plus seven hundred for wardrobe and a hundred for
outfit. To those pupils who are unable to meet the necessary expenses,
an allowance, or _Bourse_, is accorded, provided the parents engage
themselves to repay the cost of his education in case the ex-Boursier
does not remain ten years in the service of the State. The duration of
studies is two years.
At their close, the choice of the graduate's profession is determined by
his standing in his class. Rather curiously, the civil professions are
generally preferred,--mines, bridges, and highways, telegraphs, and
manufacture of tobacco. The pupils admitted into the civil professions
enter special schools, École des Mines, des Ponts et Chaussées, etc.,
with the title of Élève Ingénieur, and a brevet of sous-lieutenant de
Réserve in the artillery or the Génie [Engineers]. The pupils who select
the military career are appointed sous-lieutenants, and pass two years
at the École d'Application of Fontainebleau.
A royal ordinance of May 6, 1818, created an École d'État-Major [General
Staff], which was established in the old Hôtel de Sens, near the Place
des Invalides. The school was destined to furnish officers to the
general staff of the army; its organization was modified in 1826, and
again in 1833. Under the Empire, it was designated as the École
d'Application d'État-Major; it is to-day part of the École Supérieure de
Guerre.
In the little village of Saint-Cyr, about three miles from Versailles,
is the famous military school of the same name, which had existed at
Fontainebleau since 1803, and which, in 1808, was transferred by
Napoleon to the ancient buildings of the institution for the education
of the female nobility founded by Madame de Maintenon, and for which
Racine composed _Esther_ and _Athalie_. This institution was, naturally,
abolished during the Revolution, and the buildings appropriated to the
reception of wounded soldiers. Under the Restoration, the school was
suppressed, but later reorganized, and definitely reorganized by the
decree of January 18, 1882. Its object is to educate officers for the
infantry, the cavalry, and the marine infantry. The number of pupils is
generally from seven hundred and fifty to eight hundred, from seventeen
to twenty-one years of age. The number of pupils admitted each year is
determined by the Minister of War. The requirements of the examination
for admission are sufficiently strict to make it somewhat difficult to
secure this honor. Each pupil receives an allowance of a thousand
francs, plus seven hundred francs for his outfit. Bourses and
half-Bourses, outfits and half-outfits, are accorded by the Minister of
War under certain conditions. Each pupil volunteers to do military
service for the space of three years. The duration of studies is two
years. The pupils graduate with the grade of sous-lieutenant, and select
their corps and their garrison according to their standing in their
class.
[Illustration: RESERVISTES DURING THE TWENTY-EIGHT DAYS. After a
water-color by L. Sabattier.]
The pupils of this school, with their jaunty white plumes, add much
to the liveliness of certain quarters of Paris on Sundays and fête-days.
Permission for these outings is greatly appreciated, and, it seems, is
by no means easy to obtain. Many formalities have to be complied with
before _Cyrard_,--as these gay young men call themselves,--in his neat
uniform, can set out for the conquest of Paris. From time to time,--but
not too frequently,--the _Poireau_, the general commanding, put in a
good humor by some event which has flattered his professional pride in
the school, grants a general permission to all the pupils for an outing,
a _sortie galette_, without any regard for _moyennes_ and punishments.
This qualification of _galette_ derives its name from the fact that this
general permission specially affects the pupils _fins_ or _fines
galette_, whose ranking in their classes does not always attain the
desired altitude. The _galettes_, as happens in other educational
institutions, frequently make the best officers. One day, a good while
ago, it is related, an unfortunate _melon_, wandering about in the great
space of the cour Wagram of the school buildings, found himself in the
midst of a group of the elder pupils. "Monsieur," said a corporal to
him, haughtily, "what are you doing here? you have the appearance of a
toad in a basket of strawberries!" The humble _saumâtre_ thought it
better to reserve his reply to this mortifying comparison for a later
date. A respectable number of years afterward, the President of the
République, reviewing the garrison of Orléans, reined up his horse
before an old colonel with a white beard, and said to him point-blank:
"Well, colonel, have I still the appearance of a toad in a basket of
strawberries!" The humble _saumâtre_ was now the Maréchal de Mac-Mahon.
Sometimes the President of the République, or the Minister of War, on
the occasion of some solemnity, requests the _Poireau_ to grant a
_sortie galette_. Sometimes a personage _croco_--that is to say,
distinguished foreigner--visits the school; then the cry is: "_Calot,
les hommes! calot! sortie galette!_"
On these great occasions, the pupils who have secured this coveted
privilege of an outing assemble in the cour d'Austerlitz or the cour
Wagram to be formally inspected by the captain of the week. "Oh! this
inspection!" says an ex-élève; "I know nothing more terrible, more
feared, and more to be feared. How many laborious efforts, how many
cherished hopes, are made naught before this inflexible judge, who, for
the slightest spot, the smallest grain of dust, transforms into bitter
sadness the secret exultation of a heart which felt itself full of the
joy of existence! One day, when I had painfully acquired my _petites
moyennes_, the captain halted in front of me. I was confident; I felt
myself to be irreproachable. 'Give me your promission!' said he,
suddenly. And, before my eyes, sarcastically, he tore into fragments
this talisman of my liberty;--it appeared that the contact of my cheek
with the collar of my capote had left on the latter the almost
imperceptible touch of a little rice-powder! There was nothing for me to
do but to go back to my chamber, resume my working costume, and increase
the number of _petits-cos_, prisoners."
Without going into the infinite details of the administration of justice
in the capital, it may suffice to indicate briefly the different
attributes and functions of the four great courts of Paris. These are:
Cour de Cassation, which sits in the Palais de Justice; the Cour des
Comptes, at the Palais-Royal; the Cour d'Appel, at the Palais de
Justice; and the Cour d'Assises, at the Palais de Justice. The duties of
the first of these--at the present moment occupying so large a share of
the attention of the civilized world--are briefly stated to be "to
maintain the sound and uniform application of the laws." This court sits
in judgment on all demands for the quashing of judgment and decrees
rendered by courts of the last resort; it decides upon the demands for
transferral from one court to another, in case of legitimate suspicion
or for the benefit of the public security, conflicts of jurisdiction,
and decisions of judges. It has the power of annulling all procedures in
which the legal forms have been violated, and all judgments which are in
direct contradiction with the text of the law. It can take cognizance
only of questions of law, and not of those of facts and material
details; after having quashed a judgment, it sends the case back to
another court of the same order as that of which the decision has just
been annulled. This new decision may be again attacked and set aside,
but to prevent the endless repetition of this process, the tribunal or
the court to which the case is referred after a second reversal must
conform on the point of law with the decision of the Cour de Cassation.
It can pronounce upon the decisions of all the tribunals of the
judiciary, properly so called, but cannot take cognizance of any
decision of administrative justice. The decisions of the military
tribunals can be brought before it only by non-military persons
appealing against the incompetence of the military jurisdiction in their
case. It can quash the decisions of Juges de Paix only when they exceed
their power. It cannot determine upon the decisions of voluntary
arbitrators, who are not considered as legal tribunals, nor upon
judgments which are not definitive and conclusive, or which have
acquired the authority of the famous _chose jugée_,--decision rendered.
The Cour de Cassation consists of a first President, three Presidents of
Chambers, forty-five Conseillers divided among the three chambers (of
Requêtes, Civil and Criminal), a Procureur général, six Avocats
généraux, a Greffier en chef, and four Greffiers. The Chambre des
Requêtes sits in judgment in all civil matters not excepted by some law,
if the appeal is admissible. In this case, it sends back, by a decision
the grounds of which are not given, the case to the Chambre Civile.
Otherwise, it rejects the appeal by a decree the grounds of which are
given. It renders judgment in electoral matters, and, within certain
limits, in various special affairs.
The Chambre Civile decides definitely upon all appeals received and sent
to it by the Chambre des Requêtes, it takes cognizance directly of
appeals in questions of expropriation for the public utility, of appeals
brought, in questions of law only, in civil matters, by the _procès
gallican_ before the Cour de Cassation; of appeals, when there are
grounds, in disciplinary matters.
The Chambre Criminelle decides directly upon appeals in affairs
criminal, _correctionnelle_, and of the police, upon demands for
revision in judicial decisions and transferrals from one tribunal to
another, in cases in which the legal powers have been exceeded and the
decisions are annulled under proceedings instituted by order of the
Minister of Justice. In certain cases, determined by the law, the three
Chambres are united in a solemn audience to sit as the Conseil Supérieur
de la Magistrature.
Since 1883, the Cour de Cassation has constituted the Conseil Supérieur
de la Magistrature and has been in possession of all disciplinary powers
with regard to those magistrates who cannot be removed from their
offices, of the Cour de Cassation, of the Cours d'Appel, Tribunaux de
Première Instance, and Juges de Paix. The Conseil Supérieur determines,
the three Chambres being reunited, upon the requisitions of the
Procureur général; representing the government. No irremovable
magistrate of the courts and tribunals can be displaced excepting upon
the decision of the Conseil Supérieur. This removal does not entail
any change of functions nor diminution of position or income. The
magistrates can be placed upon the retired list, for grave and permanent
infirmities, by the decision of the Conseil Supérieur.
[Illustration: LA VIE À LA CASERNE: LE RÉVEIL. After a drawing by
Georges Scott.]
It may be interesting to know that the salary of the first President is
thirty thousand francs; of the Presidents of Chambres, twenty-five
thousand francs each; of the Conseillers, eighteen thousand francs each;
of the Procureur général, thirty thousand francs; of the Avocats
généraux, eighteen thousand francs each; of the Greffier en chef and the
four commis-Greffiers, together, thirty thousand francs.
It is before the Chambre Criminelle of this court that the inquiry into
the case of Captain Dreyfus has been conducted; and one of the many
frantic appeals of the anti-revisionists, anxious to prevent another
trial at any cost, has been to have the case transferred before the full
Cour de Cassation,--which has been finally granted by the government.
The Palais de Justice, in which this august tribunal sits, shelters also
the Cour d'Assises, the buildings of the Cour d'Appel, the prisons of
the Conciergerie and of the Dépôt, the apartments devoted to the service
of the Parquet, of the Juges d'Instruction, the smaller ones belonging
to the library and to the Salle du Conseil des Avocats, etc., and
encloses jealously the beautiful Sainte-Chapelle, the slender spire of
which and the great angel rise so incongruously over these secular
buildings devoted to windy and dusty Law.
Through the great gilded gates which from the Boulevard du Palais lead
into the Cour du Mai the visitor enters this ancient building, now
almost completely rebuilt by the restorations which have been going on
since 1840. Turning to the right, he passes into the great Salle des
Pas-Perdus, and from that into the long Galerie des Prisonniers, which
traverses the whole length of the Palais from east to west, and which
was originally constructed by Philippe le Bel. This gallery gives access
to the halls of audiences of the three Chambres of the Cour de Cassation
and the Galerie Saint-Louis. A curious detail of municipal
administration is connected with this supreme court. Though from an
architectural point of view it is undoubtedly an integral part of the
Palais de Justice, it is considered from an administrative point of view
as a separate construction, appertaining to the direction of civil
edifices, having its separate budget for construction and maintenance
and its special architect. This variety of budgets and services extends
throughout the building, the different institutions and tribunals under
its roofs being considered as belonging to different branches of the
administration. The State alone has charge of that portion of the
building occupied by the Cour de Cassation; that occupied by the Cour
d'Appel comes under the authority of the Minister of the Interior, since
the costs of the maintenance of this court are supplied by a group of
the departments of the nation. The department of the Seine and the City
of Paris have each their portion in the costs of construction and of
maintenance of the building, that of the city being by no means the
lightest. The Galerie des Prisonniers, for example, on the ground-floor
appertains both to the City of Paris and to the State, since on one side
it communicates with the Cour de Cassation; the basement, which is a
dependency of the Dépôt and of the Conciergerie, belongs both to the
city and to the department of the Seine, and the upper story is equally
divided in its allegiance. So that, if there is a question of replacing
a tile in the pavement, of repairing a ceiling, or of repainting a wall,
the architect is obliged to divide the cost, to a centime, between the
State, the Minister of the Interior, the City of Paris, and the
department of the Seine, each in its due and exact proportion.
The Cour de Cassation is very handsomely lodged, as is its due, the
Salle des Délibérations, with its heavy ceiling of carved and gilded
wood, being one of the most important and luxurious in the Palais, and
the Chambre d'Audience having for its plafond the celebrated
_Glorification de la Loi_ of Paul Baudry. The literal and realistic
magistrate who doffs his cap in the midst of all these pretty
allegories, at the pedestal of the Law, wears the gown of the President
of the Cour de Cassation.
"If, in the middle of the afternoon, you should issue from the Salle des
Pas-Perdus, your ears buzzing with the incessant hubbub which fills it
for three hours every day, deafened by the shrill ringing of the bell
which calls the attorneys in different directions, and after having
followed the long Gallery _des Prisonniers_, you should penetrate into
the passages of the Cour de Cassation, you would be astonished at the
extraordinary contrast presented by these two portions of the Palais,
such near neighbors. Over there, the noise and the tumult of the crowd
of lawyers, the arguing of cases and the spectators; here, the dull
silence of deserted edifices.
"It would seem that Jurisprudence, a magician with somnolent powers, had
steeped in lethargic slumber his faithful servitors, and the old
councillors who nod their heads, during the hearing, in their majestic
seats, wearing the toque of black velvet the peculiar form of which has
procured for them the disrespectful appellation of 'lancers,' the
occasional attendants who pass silently through the long corridors, the
solitary soldier of the Garde Municipale seated on a bench in the
gallery Saint-Louis, frightened almost at the solemnity of the place,
all seem but sorrowful shadows guarding the sanctuary of the Supreme
Court. Even the spectators complete the impression of profound ennui
which disengages itself from the very walls; here are none of the ardent
or tedious pleadings, the passionate or cheerful discussions, which keep
alive the attention of counsellors and judges in the Cour d'Appel and
the Tribunal. Facts, actions, with their complications and their
peculiar interests, with their infinite variety, are here banished from
the argument. The Law here takes an ample revenge; here are discussed
only matters of pure legislation, profound decrees of the supreme court,
or the interminable argumentations of authors who have produced sapient
dissertations upon the uttermost juridical disputation.--It is the
triumph of the ancient classic controversy, for discussions are still
held in the supreme court _pro et contrà_, to conclude in _baralipton_,
in the same manner as in the ancient Sorbonne;--Latin alone is wanting
to the festival.
"Pleadings, indeed, have but little importance before the Cour de
Cassation: it is the _mémoire_, laboriously and lengthily composed by
the avocat, which is the _pièce de résistance_ in every case, because it
sets forth a complete exposé of the affair and the minute discussion of
each one of the juridical problems which it brings up, with infinite
divisions and subdivisions. The monotonous reading of the
Conseiller-rapporteur being finished, the avocat proceeds to develop his
mémoire, and the Avocat général states his conclusions; then, if the
question present only mediocre juridical interest, the conseillers
gather in a circle in the centre of the Salle d'Audience to discuss,
adopt, or reject the judgment prepared in advance by the
Rapporteur;--this is what is called _faire le rondeau_. And there may be
seen, in the unshaded light of the hall, under the ceiling in gilded
oak of the Chambre Civile, these gray or white heads agitating
themselves, and Passion (passion inspired by abstract law!) reappears.
The apathy, the somnolence of a few minutes ago, have disappeared, and
these hoary old men find again, for the moment, an ardor which seemed to
have been forever laid to sleep....
[Illustration: MEDALLISTS OF SAINTE-HÉLÈNE IN THE PLACE VENDOME.
After the painting by Maurice Orange.
The Médaille de Sainte-Hélène was, by a decree, in 1857, a special
distinction awarded to all survivors of the wars of 1792 to 1815.]
"Silence, a silence which is scarcely troubled by the sound of the
discreet footfalls of the rare promenaders, an icy chill, are the
inalienable characteristics of the locality in which sits the first
court of the justice of France. Respect it, do as do those who frequent
it willingly or because of the necessities of the daily task, and issue
from these deserted galleries, speaking in an undertone, and with the
finger upon the lips, in order not to trouble the repose of its
inhabitants."
The Cour des Comptes, which sits in the Palais-Royal, ranks immediately
after the Cour de Cassation, and enjoys the same prerogatives. It is the
modern representative of the Chambres des Comptes of the old monarchy
and of the Commission de Comptabilité Nationale which replaced these
Chambres at the period of the Revolution. It was created by a law of
September 16, 1807, and constitutes at once an administrative tribunal
charged with the verification and examination of certain financial
accounts of the administration and an institution of the body-politic
intended, by its control over the financial measures of the
administration and other administrative accounts which it is not called
upon to examine, to advise the executive and legislative powers. It may
therefore be considered as the superintendent of the public fortune and
of its financial measures.
It consists of a first President, three Presidents of Chambres, eighteen
Conseillers Maîtres, twenty-four Conseillers Référendaires of the first
class, sixty of the second class, a Procureur général, fifteen Auditeurs
of the first class, ten of the second class, a Greffier en chef, etc.
The salaries of these officials are about the same as those of the Cour
de Cassation. The first President has the supreme direction of all the
deliberations of the court, as well as of the police and general
surveillance. The court is divided into three Chambres, having each a
President and six Conseillers Maîtres who alone have a voice in the
deliberations and constitute, themselves, the members of the
administrative tribunal sitting in judgment. The deliberations are not
public. The Presidents and Conseillers cannot be removed, and are placed
on the retired list, the Presidents and Maîtres at seventy-five years of
age, and the Référendaires at seventy years. The court addresses an
annual report to the chief of the State, in which it sets forth those
matters which, in the course of its examinations, have seemed to it
worthy of the attention of the government, and advocates those reforms
and ameliorations in the administration of the public finances which
have been suggested to it by its consideration of the various facts and
enactments.
The Cour d'Appel, at the Palais de Justice, includes in its jurisdiction
the departments of the Aube, Eure-et-Loir, Marne, Seine-et-Marne,
Seine-et-Oise, Yonne-et-Seine. In all cases, the decrees are rendered by
the magistrates deliberating, in groups of some odd number,--at least
five, including the President. In all civil and commercial cases, appeal
can be made from all decisions rendered by the tribunals of the
arrondissements or of commerce, by referees, judicial reports upon cases
in litigation in which the amount involved exceeds fifteen hundred
francs of injury to the person or to personal property, or sixty francs
of revenue from real estate.
This court is composed of a first President, nine Presidents of
Chambres, and sixty-two Conseillers, divided among nine Chambres, of
which seven decide upon civil and commercial appeals, one upon appeals
_Correctionnels_, and the ninth is the Chambre des Mises en Accusation,
before which are brought criminal cases after they have passed the stage
of preliminary examination. The Parquet connected with the Cour d'Appel
consists of the Procureur général, seven Avocats généraux, and eleven
Substituts of the Procureur général. The Cour d'Appel sits in judgment
as a court of first and last resort in all cases of misdemeanors,
involving a legal penalty, committed by the magistrates of the Cour de
Cassation, of the Cour d'Appel, of the Tribunal de Première Instance, by
the Juges de Paix, the Préfets, the Grand Officers of the Legion of
Honor, generals, archbishops, bishops, presidents of Consistoires in the
Protestant and Jewish organizations.
In each department of France there is a Cour d'Assises to try those
individuals who are sent before it by the Chambre des Mises en
Accusation of the Cour d'Appel. In the departments generally these
courts sit every three months, and more frequently if occasion requires.
The Cour d'Assises of the department of the Seine holds its sittings
every day, in the Palais de Justice. This court consists, first, of
three Conseillers of the Cour d'Appel, the first sitting as President,
the two others as Assesseurs, designated every three months, the
President by the Garde des Sceaux, the Assesseurs by the first
President; second, of a representative of the Ministère Public, selected
among the Avocats généraux or the Substitutes of the Procureur général;
third, of a Greffier; fourth, of a jury composed of twelve citizens
selected by lot by the President from the list of thirty-six _jures_
designated for the session. After the examination of the accused, the
depositions of the witnesses, the Réquisitoire of the Ministère Public
and the presentation of the defence, the jury retires to deliberate upon
the probable guilt of the prisoner and the extenuating circumstances.
When the jurors have agreed upon their verdict, the President causes the
prisoner to be brought back into court, the Greffier reads to him the
conclusion of the jury, and the court pronounces his acquittal, or
sentences him to the penalty due the crime of which he has just been
convicted, even when this penalty is only a matter of police regulation.
The decision of the jury is supposed to be final, but when a prisoner is
found guilty and the court is convinced that the jury is entirely in
error, it may set the judgment aside and postpone the case to another
session. Against the sentence of the court, appeal may be made to the
Cour de Cassation. The Cour d'Assises exercises full jurisdiction in all
cases criminal, _correctionnelle_, or of the _Simple Police_, excepting
in the case of some special law. It takes cognizance, moreover, of
actions qualified as crimes, of actions qualified as misdemeanors which
a special law places under its jurisdiction,--misdemeanors committed
during its sessions, political misdemeanors and those of the press,
excepting offences against the public morality and slander, or insults
offered to individuals, which all come before the Tribunal
Correctionnel.
[Illustration: SCENE IN A MAIRIE DURING THE PHYSICAL EXAMINATION OF
MILITARY CONSCRIPTS.