It is particularly charged with the compilation and improvement of
the dictionary of the French tongue. With respect to language, it
shall examine important works of literature, history, and sciences.
The collection of its critical observations shall be published at
least four times a year.
It shall appoint from its own members, and with the approbation of
the First Consul, a perpetual secretary, who shall continue to make
one of the sixty members of whom the class is composed.
It may elect twelve of its members from among those of the other
classes of the Institute.
IV. The third class shall be composed of forty members and eight
foreign associates.
The learned languages, antiquities and ornaments, history, and all
the moral and political sciences in as far as they relate to history,
shall be the objects of its researches and labours. It shall
particularly endeavour to enrich French literature with the works of
Greek, Latin, and Oriental authors, which have not yet been
translated.
It shall employ itself in the continuation of diplomatic collections.
With the approbation of the First Consul, it shall name from its own
members a perpetual secretary, who shall make one of the forty
members of whom the class is composed.
It may elect nine of its members from among those of the classes of
the Institute.
It may name sixty national or foreign correspondents.
V. The fourth class shall be composed of twenty-eight members and
eight foreign associates. They shall be divided into sections, named
and composed as follows:
Painting ten members.
Sculpture six ditto.
Architecture six ditto.
Engraving three ditto.
Music (composition) three ditto.
With the approbation of the First Consul, it shall appoint a
perpetual secretary, who shall be a member of the class, but shall
not make part of the sections.
It may elect six of its members from among the other classes of the
Institute.
It may name thirty-six national or foreign correspondents.
VI. The associated foreign members shall have a deliberative vote
only for objects relating to sciences, literature, and arts. They
shall not make part of any section, and shall receive no salary.
VII. The present associates of the Institute, scattered throughout
the Republic, shall make part of the one hundred and ninety-six
correspondents, attached to the classes of the sciences,
belles-lettres, and fine arts.
The correspondents cannot assume the title of members of the
Institute. They shall drop that of correspondents, when they take up
their constant residence in Paris.
VIII. The nominations to the vacancies shall be made by each of the
classes in which those vacancies shall happen to occur. The persons
elected shall be approved by the First Consul.
IX. The members of the four classes shall have a right to attend
reciprocally the private sittings of each of them, and to read papers
there when they have made the request.
They shall assemble four times a year as the body of the Institute,
in order to give to each other an account of their transactions.
They shall elect in common the librarian and under-librarian, as well
as all the agents who belong in common to the Institute.
Each class shall present for the approbation of the government the
particular statutes and regulations of its interior police.
X. Each class shall hold every year a public sitting, at which the
other three shall assist.
XI. The Institute shall receive annually, from the public treasury,
1500 francs for each of its members, not associates; 6000 francs for
each of its perpetual secretaries; and, for its expenses, a sum which
shall be determined on, every year, at the request of the Institute,
and comprised in the budget of the Minister of the Interior.
XII. The Institute shall have an administrative commission, composed
of five members, two of the first class, and one of each of the other
three, appointed by their respective classes.
This commission shall cause to be regulated in the general sittings,
prescribed in Art. IX, every thing relative to the administration, to
the general purposes of the Institute, and to the division of the
funds between the four classes.
Each class shall afterwards regulate the employment of the funds
which shall have been assigned for its expenses, as well as every
thing that concerns the printing and publication of its memoirs.
XIII. Every year, each class shall distribute prizes, the number and
value of which shall be regulated as follows:
The first class, a prize of 3000 francs.
The second and third classes, each a prize of 1500 francs.
And the fourth class, great prizes of painting, sculpture,
architecture, and musical composition. Those who shall have gained
one of these four great prizes, shall be sent to Rome, and maintained
at the expense of the government.
XIV. The Minister of the Interior is charged with the execution of
the present decree, which shall be inserted in the Bulletin of the
Laws.
[Footnote 1: Referred to in Letter XLV, Vol. II of this work.]