The Modern Regime Volume II Part 21

[Footnote 6315: Here Taine describes the very principle of democratic government in a welfare state. "Do not worry, demand and we supply, the rich will pay!!!" Taine understood and foresaw the riches which the industrial society could be made to produce but neither he nor anyone else could foresee that Human Rights should include central heating, housing, running hot and cold water, television, free health care, a car and worldwide tourism..(SR.)]

[Footnote 6316: See "The Modern Regime," I., pp.183, 202.]

[Footnote 6317: Maggiolo, "des Ecoles en Lorraine." (Details on several communal schools.) 3rd part, pp. 9-50.--Cf. Jourdain, "le Budget de l'Instruction publique," 1857, pa.s.sim. (Appropriation by the State for primary instruction in 1829, 100,000 francs; in 1832, 1,000,000 francs; in 1847, 2,400,000 francs;--for secondary instruction, in 1830, 920,000 francs; in 1848, 1,500,000 francs; in 1854, 1,549,241 francs. (The towns support their own communal colleges.)--Liard," Universites et Facultes,"

p. II. In 1829, the budget of Faculties does not reach 1,000,000 francs; in 1848, it is 2,876,000 francs.]

[Footnote 6318: Law of Floreal 11, year X, article 4.--"Rapport sur la statistique comparee de l'enseignement primaire," 1880, vol. II.,p.

133;--31 per cent of the pupils in the public schools were gratuitously admitted in 1837; 57 per cent in 1876-77. The congregationists admit about two thirds of their scholars gratuitously and one third for pay.]

[Footnote 6319: Cf. Jourdain, Ibid., pp. 22, 143, 161.]

[Footnote 6320: Cf. Jourdain, Ibid., p.287. (The fixed salary and examination-fees are included in the above figures.) In 1850, the regular salary of the professor in the Paris Medical Faculty is reduced from 7000 to 6000 francs. In 1849, the maximum of all the salaries of the Law professors is limited to 12,000 francs.]

[Footnote 6321: Read, among other biographies, "Ambroise Rendu," by Eug.

Rendu.]

[Footnote 6322: This, in France, lasted until the Communists in 1946 insisted as a price for their partic.i.p.ation in governing France that the right to strike for civil servants be inserted in the French Const.i.tution. In this way Stalin was sure to trouble France a great deal. (SR.)]

[Footnote 6323: "Rapport sur la statistique comparee de l'enseignement primaire," 1880, vol. II.,pp.8, 110, 206.--Law of March 15, 1850, "Expose des motifs," by M. Beugnot.]

[Footnote 6324: "Revue des Deux Mondes," number of Aug.15, 1869, pp.

909, 911. (Article by M. Boissier.)]

[Footnote 6325: Act of Nov. 9, 1818. (Down to 1850 and after, the University so arranged its teaching (in high school) as not to come in conflict with the clergy on the debatable grounds of history. For example, at the end of the 8th grade the history of the Roman Empire after Augustus was rapidly pa.s.sed over and then, in the 9th grade, they began again with the invasion of the barbarians. The origins of Christianity and the entire primitive history of the Christian Church were thus avoided. For the same reason, modern history ended in 1789.]

[Footnote 6326: M. Guizot, "Memoires," vol. II.]

[Footnote 6327: An eminent university personage, a political character and man of the world, said to me in 1850: "Pedagogy does not exist.

There are only personal methods which each finds out for himself and eloquent phrases for effect on the public."--Breal, "Quelques mots sur l'instruction publique" (1872), p. 300: "France produces more works on sericiculture than on the direction of colleges; rules and a few works already ancient suffice for us."]

[Footnote 6328: On this day the monarchy of King Louis-Phillippe collapsed and the Republic was declared. (SR.)]

[Footnote 6329: "L'eglise et l'etat sous la monarchie de juillet," by Thureau-Dangin, 481-483.]

[Footnote 6330: Law of March 15, 1850 (Report by M. Beugnot).]

[Footnote 6331: Law of March 15, 1850, art. 21.]

[Footnote 6332: Law of March 15, 1850, article 21.]

[Footnote 6333: "Ambroise Rendu et l'Universite de France," by E. Rendu, p.128 (January, 1850). The discretionary power given to the prefects to punish "the promoters of socialism" among the teachers in the primary schools.--Six hundred and eleven teachers revoked.--There was no less repression and oppression in the secondary and higher departments of instruction.]

[Footnote 6334: Kingdom of July, (Louis-Philippe from 1830 to 24-2-1848.) (SR.)]

[Footnote 6335: De Riancey, ibid., II.., 476. (Words of M. Saint-Marc Girardin.) "We instruct, we do not bring up (children); we cultivate and develop the mind, not the heart."--Similar evidence, as for instance that of M. Dubois, director of the Ecole Normale and of M. Guizot, minister of public instruction. "Education is not up to the level of instruction." (Exposition of the intent of the law of 1836.)]

[Footnote 6336: De Riancey, ibid., II., 401, 475.--Thureau-Dangin, ibid., 145 and 146.--(Words of a fervent Catholic, M. de Montalembert, on the trial of the Free School, Sept.29, 1831.) "It is with a heart still distressed with these souvenirs (personal) that I here declare that, were I a father, I would rather see my children crawl their whole life in ignorance and idleness than expose them to the horrible risk I ran myself of obtaining a little knowledge at the cost of their father's faith, at the price of everything that is pure and fresh in their soul and of honor and virtue in their breast."--(Testimony of a zealous Protestant, M. de Gasparin.) "Religious education does not really exist in the colleges. I remember with horror how I was on finishing my national education. Were we good citizens? I do not know. But it is certain that we were not Christians."--Testimony of a free-thinker, Sainte-Beuve.) "In ma.s.s, the professors of the University, without being hostile to religion, are not religious. The pupils feel this, and they leave this atmosphere, not fed on irreligion, but indifferent.... One goes away from the University but little of a Christian."]

[Footnote 6337: Boissier, ibid., p.712]

[Footnote 6338: In my youth, I was able to talk with some of those who lived during the Consulate. All agreed in opinion. One, an admirer of Condillac and founder of a boarding-school, had written for his pupils a number of small elementary treatises, which I still possess.]

[Footnote 6339: Charles Hamel, "Histoire de Juilly," pp. 413, 419 (1818).--Ibid., 532, 665 (April 15, 1846.) The Tontine a.s.sociation replaced by a limited a.s.sociation (40 years) with a capital of 500,000 francs in 1000 shares of 500 francs each, etc.]

[Footnote 6340: For example, "Monge," the "ecole Alsacienne," the "ecole libre des Sciences Politiques." Competent jurists recommend the founders of a private school to organize it under the form of a commercial a.s.sociation, with profit for its aim and not the public good. If the founders of the school wish to maintain the free management of it they must avoid declaring it "of public utility."]

[Footnote 6341: The "ecole Alsacienne" has been supported for some years mainly by a subsidy of 40,000 francs allotted by the State. This year the State furnishes, "Monge" and "Sainte-Barbe" with subsidies of 130,000 and 150,000 francs, without which they would become bankrupt and close their doors. The State probably thus supports them so as to have a field of pedagogic experiences alongside of its lycees, or to prevent their being bought by some Catholic corporation.]

[Footnote 6342: Even when the masters are conciliatory or reserved the two inst.i.tutions face each other and the pupils are aware of the antagonism; hence, they turn a cold shoulder to the pupils, education and ideas of the rival inst.i.tution. In 1852, and on four circular journeys from 1863 to 1866, I was able to observe these sentiments which are now very manifest.]

[Footnote 6343: The period of the annual school examinations in France.--Tr.]

[Footnote 6344: This word means something more than an ordinary "boarding-school," as the reader will see by the text, and is therefore retained as untranslatable.--Tr.]

[Footnote 6345: Expositione universelle of 1889, "Rapport du jury,"

group II., 1st part, P.492.--Doc.u.ments collected in the bureaus of public instruction for 1887. (To the internes here enumerated must be added those of private secular establishments, 8958 out of 20,174 pupils.)--Breal, "Excursions pedagogiques," pp.293, 298.]

[Footnote 6346: All these figures are today in 1998, 100 years later, no longer valid, they are only included in order to understand Taine's insights into human nature and education in general. In 1994-5 there were, in the State lycees and colleges over 4 millions students and only those whose parents live too far from the schools, or some 9%, are boarders. (SR.)]

[Footnote 6347: Today, in 1998, the number of pupils living on French school premises amount to approximatively 10%, mostly because the parents live too far away from the school. (SR.)]

[Footnote 6348: Breal, ibid., pp. 10, 13. Id., "Quelques mots sur l'instruction publique," p. 286. "The internat is nearly unknown in Germany.... The director (of the gymnase) informs parents where families can be found willing to receive boarders and he must satisfy himself that their hospitality is un.o.bjectionable.... In the new gymnases there is no room for boarders."--Demogeot et Montucci, "Rapport sur l'enseignement secondaire en Angleterre et en Ecosse," 1865.--(I venture also to refer the reader to my "Notes sur l'Angleterre," for a description of Harrow-on-the-Hill and another school at Oxford, made on the spot.)]

[Footnote 6349: Taine, "Notes sur l'Angleterre," P.139. The pupils of the superior cla.s.s (sixth form), especially the first fifteen of the cla.s.s (monitors), the first pupil in particular, have to maintain order, insure respect for the rules and, taking it all together, take the place of our maitres d'etude.]

[Footnote 6350: Breal, "Quelques mots, etc.," pp.281, 282. The same in France, "before the Revolution,... except in two or three large establishments in Paris, the number of pupils was generally sufficiently limited.... At Port-Royal the number of boarders was never over fifty at one time."--"Before 1764, most of the colleges were day-schools with from 15 to 80 pupils," besides the scholarships. and peasant boarders, not very numerous.--"An army of boarders, comprising more than one half of our bourgeois cla.s.s, under a drill regulated and overlooked by the State, buildings holding from seven to eight hundred boarders--such is what one would vainly try to find anywhere else, and which is essentially peculiar to contemporary France."]

[Footnote 6351: Breal, ibid., 287, id., "Excursions pedagogiques," p.

10. "I took part (with these pupils) in a supper full of gayety in the room of the celebrated Latinist, Corssen, and I remember the thought that pa.s.sed through my mind when recurring to the meal we silently partook of at Metz, two hundred of us, under the eye of the censor and general superintendent, and menaced with punishment, in our cold, monastic refectory."]

[Footnote 6352: Even though Taine had visited Eton and other English schools, he appears to have a somewhat rosy picture of life inside these inst.i.tutions. I have been 9 years to a similar school and can a.s.sure the reader that the headmaster's wife is no suitable subst.i.tute for a real mother and her table does not replace one's own home. The rector of my school once stated that boarding schools should only be resorted to when one could not remain at home. It was my impression that this school had two effects upon me: the first that I wanted, in spite of good grades, to stop my studies and get a job and the second that I became, like Taine, an opponent to the system. Later on in life I should come to appreciate all the useful things like languages, literature, math and physics which I had learned in this well-organized school. I also came to understand that much worse than harsh discipline is no discipline and no learning at all, something which happened to my children when they attended, for one year only, the American School in Bangkok. (SR.)]

[Footnote 6353: Pelet de la Lozere, "Opinions de Napoleon au Conseil d'etat," p.172. (Session of April 7, 1807:) "The professors are to be transferred from place to place in the Empire according to necessity."

--Decree of May 1, 1802, article 21: "The three functionaries in charge of the administration and the professors of the lycees may be transferred from the weakest to the strongest lycees and from inferior to superior places according to the talent and zeal they show in their functions."]

[Footnote 6354: A splendid description which also fits the international civil servants working for the United Nations. I know this because I was one for 32 years of my life. I suspect it also fits members of the police forces, secret or not. (SR.)]

[Footnote 6355: Act of Jan. 11, 1811.--Decree of March 17, 1808, articles 101 and 102.]

[Footnote 6356: Boissier ("Revue du Deux Mondes," Aug. 15, 1869, p.

919): "The externe lycees cost and the interne lycees bring in."]

[Footnote 6357: "Statistique de l'enseigncnient secondaire" (46,816 pupils, of which 33,092 internes and 13,724 externes).--Abbe Bougaud, "Le Grand Peril de l'Eglise du France," p. 135.--"Moniteur," March 14, 1865, Speech of Cardinal Bonnechose in the Senate.]

[Footnote 6358: Name of the navy school-ship at Brest.--TR.]

[Footnote 6359: Breal, "Quelques mots, etc.," p. 308: "We need not be surprised that our children, once out of the college, resemble horses just let loose, kicking at every barrier and committing all sorts of capers. The age of reason has been artificially r.e.t.a.r.ded for them five or six years."]

[Footnote 6360: On the tone and turn of conversation among boys in school on this subject in the upper cla.s.ses and even earlier, I can do no more than appeal to the souvenirs of the reader.--Likewise, on another danger of the internat, not less serious, which cannot be mentioned. (Here Taine undoubtedly refers to h.o.m.os.e.xuality. (SR.))]