This is the name to be applied to those of the upper schools, where
are particularly taught, and in the most profound manner, the useful
sciences, jurisprudence, medicine, natural history, &c. But schools
of this kind must not be confounded with the Schools for Engineers,
Artillery, Bridges and Highways, Hydrography, &c. which, _special_ as
they are essentially, in proportion to the sciences particularly
taught in them, are better described, however, by the name of
_Schools for Public Services_, on account of the immediate utility
derived from them by the government.
In addition to the _Special_ Schools now in existence, which are to
be kept up, new ones are to be established in the following
proportion:
Ten Schools of Jurisprudence. These useful institutions, which have
been abolished during the last ten years, are, by a new organization,
to resume the importance that they had lost long before the
revolution. The pupils are to be examined in a manner more certain
for determining their capacity, and better calculated for securing
the degree of confidence to be reposed in those men to whose
knowledge and integrity individuals are sometimes forced to intrust
their character and fortune.
Three new Schools of Medicine, in addition to the three at present in
being. These also are to be newly organized in the most perfect
manner.
The mathematical and physical sciences have made too great a progress
in France, their application to the useful arts, to the public
service, and to the general prosperity, has been too direct, says
FOURCROY, for it not to be necessary to diffuse the taste for them,
and to open new asylums where the advantages resulting from them may
be extended, and their progress promoted. There are therefore to be
four new _Special_ Schools of Natural History, Physics, and
Chymistry, and also a _Special_ School devoted to transcendent
Mathematics.
The mechanical and chymical arts, so long taught in several
universities in Germany under the name of _technology_, are to have
two _Special_ Schools, placed in the cities most rich in industry and
manufactures. These schools, generally wished for, are intended to
contribute to the national prosperity by the new methods which they
will make known, the new instruments and processes which they will
bring into use, the good models of machines which they will
introduce, in a word, by every means that mechanics and chymistry can
furnish to the arts.
A School of Public Economy, enlightened by Geography and History, is
to be opened for those who may be desirous to investigate the
principles of governments, and the art of ascertaining their
respective interests. In this school it is proposed to unite such an
assemblage of knowledge as has not yet existed in France.
To the three principal schools of the arts dependent on design, which
are at present open, is to be added a fourth, become necessary since
those arts bring back to France the pure taste of the beautiful
forms, of which Greece has left such perfect models.
In each of the observatories now in use is to be a professor of
astronomy, and the art of navigation is expected to derive new
succour from these schools, most of which are placed in the principal
sea-ports. A knowledge of the heavens and the study of the movements
of the celestial bodies, which every year receives very remarkable
augmentations from the united efforts of the most renowned
geometricians and the most indefatigable observers, may have a great
influence on the progress of civilization. On which account the
French government is extremely eager to promote the science of
astronomy.
The language of neighbouring nations, with whom the French have such
frequent intercourse, is to be taught in several Lyceums, as being a
useful introduction to commerce.
The art of war, of which modern times have given such great examples
and such brilliant lessons, is to have its _special_ school, and this
school, on the plan which it is intended to be established by
receiving as soldiers youths from the Lyceums, will form for the
French armies officers equally skilful in theory as in practice.
This new Military School must not be confounded with the old _école
militaire_. Independently of its not being destined for a particular
class, which no longer exists in this country, the mode of
instruction to be introduced there will render it totally different
from the establishment which bore the same name.
It is to be composed of five hundred pupils, forming a battalion, and
who are to be accustomed to military duty and discipline; it is to
have at least ten professors, charged to teach all the theoretical,
practical, and administrative parts of the art of war, as well as the
history of wars and of great captains.
Of the five hundred pupils of the Special Military School, two
hundred are to be taken from among the national pupils of the
Lyceums, in proportion to their number in each of those schools, and
three hundred from among the boarders and day-scholars, according to
the examination which they must undergo at the end of their studies.
Every year one hundred of the former are to be admitted, and two
hundred of the latter. They are to be maintained two years in the
Special Military School, at the expense of the Republic. These two
years are to be considered as part of their military service.
According to the report made of the behaviour and talents of the
pupils of the Military School, the government is to provide them with
appointments in the army.